Publication Type
Transcript
Version
publishedVersion
Publication Date
6-2023
Abstract
An application was made under s 95 of the Legal Profession Act to set aside a penalty imposed by the Council of the Law Society. The Court of Appeal held that an appeal lay to the Appellate Division of the High Court, and not the Court of Appeal, because this was not a “case relating to constitutional or administrative law”. The reasoning is problematic: it relied on an overly narrow conception of “public powers”, conflated judicial review with administrative law more broadly, erroneously considered the merits of the application as relevant to the “which court” question, and overlooked the similarities between the present application and a typical application for judicial review. This note proposes a more detailed definition of “constitutional or administrative law”, and presents further, more fundamental proposals for reform to prevent excessive satellite litigation and allocate appeals more efficiently.
Keywords
constitutional law, administrative law, civil appeals, Singapore, public-private divide, civil procedure, appeals
Discipline
Dispute Resolution and Arbitration
Research Areas
Public Interest Law, Community and Social Justice; Dispute Resolution; Asian and Comparative Legal Systems; Public Law
Publication
Singapore Academy of Law Journal
First Page
1
Last Page
18
ISSN
0218-2009
Publisher
Singapore Academy of Law
Citation
ONG, Benjamin Joshua.
The new system of civil appeals: What "Constitutional or Administrative Law" is; whether to appeal to the appellate division or the court of appeal; and proposals for further reform. (2023). Singapore Academy of Law Journal. 1-18.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sol_research/4297
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