Abstract
This chapter is based on experience of teaching comparative law in the multicultural environment of classrooms in Singapore. Reflecting on this experience, the chapter explores the mission(s) of comparative law drawing on jurisprudential perspectives. From this, the chapter develops and argument about what comparative law should and should not be called upon to do in the classroom, and what a teacher of comparative law in multicultural legal classes should aim to deliver. In sum, the argument is that a jurisprudentially informed comparative legal studies approach should be pursued. If such an approach is adopted, then the teaching of comparative law in multicultural legal classes, while challenging, presents a significant opportunity for enhanced understanding.
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Notes
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The Graduate LLB is here to be distinguished from the post-graduate law degrees (like the LLM or PhD). At the NUS Faculty of Law, a student already holding an undergraduate degree who are coming to law school for a first law degree can be admitted into the Graduate LLB (GLB), where they earn the LLB degree in a reduced time. At the SMU School of Law, these students are admitted into a similar programme but the degree is called the JD.
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For a representation of Singapore’s religious demographics (based on a 2015 survey), see: https://www.singstat.gov.sg/-/media/files/visualising_data/infographics/ghs/highlights-of-ghs2015.pdf.
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AMLA (Cap 3, 2009 rev edn) (Singapore).
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See AMLA, sections 35(3) and 112.
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An interesting example of this phenomenon comes from the case of Ting Sing Ning v Ting Chek Swee [2008] 1 SLR 197 (Court of Appeal, Singapore). In this case, one issue was if shares held by family members should be counted together since, in an Asian family, family members could be expected to vote together out of ‘Asian values’. The Court held that since the relevant shareholder were part of an “Asian family” it was more likely than not that their shares would be voted together. But see also, and contrary, Wee and Puchniak (2012), p. 323.
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For example, the Cambridge University Press Series on ‘Law in Context’: https://www.cambridge.org/core/series/law-in-context/ and the International Journal of Law in Context: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-journal-of-law-in-context.
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Eliot (1919): ”the historical sense involves a perception, not only of the pastness of the past, but of its presence.”
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Jamal, A.A. (2020). Comparative Law and Multicultural Legal Classes in Singapore: An Opportunity for Enhanced Understanding. In: Varga, C. (eds) Comparative Law and Multicultural Legal Classes: Challenge or Opportunity?. Ius Comparatum - Global Studies in Comparative Law, vol 46. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-46898-9_6
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