Friday, August 4, 2017

Chesterman on Legal Education in Singapore

Simon Chesterman, National University of Singapore Faculty of Law, has posted The Fall and Rise of Legal Education in Singapore, which is forthcoming in the Singapore Journal of Legal Studies:
Prior to independence, legal education was all but non-existent in Singapore and many other colonies. This essay briefly discusses that colonial context before going on to describe how the National University of Singapore Faculty of Law came to play an important part in Singapore’s rule of law story as Singapore’s national law school, a global law school, and an Asian law school. A third section considers challenges for the future, including the impact of technology on legal practice and the changing market for legal services. These transformations require us to rethink the purpose of law school, even as they are matched by changes in the students and faculty who enter our classrooms and our offices.