Law and Technology Track

• Asian and Global Trends in IT Law / Trade Regulation in a Global Age (choose 1)
• Advanced Law of Obligations / Law of Real Estate Securitisation (choose 1)
• Mediation / Financial Regulation in Asia (choose 1)

• AI, Law and Ethics
• Essential Technology for Lawyers
• Fintech Regulation / Blockchain and Governance / Data Governance (choose 1)

Note: The list and scheduling of track core modules are subject to change in view of the availability of course instructors.

Candidates will be taken through the many legal issues and problems that arise from and relate to developments in information and communications technology. The course will build problem-solving skills in dealing with a subject matter that is still evolving in the context of a rapidly evolving technology and innovation environment, and that is impacting socio-economic transactions and stakeholders on a global scale. New legislative developments will also be considered in detail. In particular, more recent amendments to the Electronic Transactions Act of 2010 relating to e-contracts, e-signature and intermediary liability; the enactment of the Personal Data Protection Act in 2012 relating to data protection, the do-not-call registry and the Spam Control Act; changes to content regulations, specifically the class licensing regulations in 2013; the new Protection from Harassment Act and recent amendments to the Copyright Act in 2014 and 2016. The latest trends and developments in other jurisdictions relating to these topics will also be considered.

As business firms expand across the globe, trade regulations also move beyond national borders. The most comprehensive rules on international trade are contained in the Agreements of the World Trade Organization (WTO), which now cover issues including trade in both industrial and agricultural products, trade in services, labor mobility, investment, free trade agreements, health and food safety, and a wide variety of domestic regulatory regimes. Thus, it is important that lawyers advising business firms understand these rules so they may help the clients to structure their transactions to maximize their benefits and minimize the costs. Taught by a former staff member of the WTO Secretariat who is among a handful of people in the world who have worked on WTO cases as an insider at both the panel and Appellate Body levels, the course will help the students to study the legal rules of the WTO and free trade agreements, which cover tariff measures, antidumping and safeguard measures, food safety regulations, as well as domestic regulations of key WTO Members like the US & China. Using real WTO cases decided by the WTO tribunals as examples, the students will be able to critically examine how these rules are made, what are the impacts on business firms, how to argue the best case for their clients, and how these rules could be improved in the future. The knowledge and skills learnt in this course will be helpful for students to participate in various WTO moot courts around the world, and explore a wide range of career options, including private law firms, government agencies (MFA, MTI), multinational companies, and international organizations (WTO, World Bank).

Seminars will cover key aspects of the law of obligations, such as contract law, tort law, trust and equity, and the law of restitution. The focus is on cultivating a thorough understanding of how these various aspects interact, while more practically relevant developments will also be emphasised. The various topics will be taught from a comparative perspective with ample references to ASEAN, Asian and leading common law jurisdictions.

While space and the built environment is ubiquitous, real estate remains a unique asset class. The rules relating to its current and future value, how it may be securely transferred from one party to another and its very definition all depend on law. Property development, investment and securitisation are all aspects that real estate market players take cognisance of. This course provides a legal primer on the legal fundamentals of real estate practice, with an emphasis on the regulations pertaining to securitisation of real estate via a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) or Business Trust (BT). Where relevant, comparisons with other jurisdictions will be made. The course is both practical and academically rigorous and is relevant to students with an interest in real estate transactions and securitisation.

Please click here for the detailed course outline.

This course deals with the rapidly growing area of private international mediation. Imagine the following scenario: You are asked to mediate a professional negligence dispute. The plaintiff is based in England, the defendant accounting firm is in Hong Kong, and the defendant’s insurer has its headquarters in the United States. All agree to attend mediation in Singapore. The preliminary discussions and meetings, however, take place via email and video-conference with all parties in their home countries. The mediation occurs and the parties reach a settlement, which the parties’ legal representatives draft into contractual form. Such cross-border mediations involve:  

• international and intercultural competencies;
• online and face-to-face mediation processes and protocols; and
• knowledge of the applicable law in relation to the substantive and procedural aspects of mediation.

This course offers you a framework for understanding cross-border mediation law and practice and the opportunity to develop specialised mediation skills relevant to cross-border settings. Simulated role-play exercises are arranged to develop your skills as a mediator.

Upon successful completion of the course and related assessment, participants will be able to apply to the Singapore International Mediation Institute (SIMI) for mediator accreditation. Participants who wish to do so may inform SIDRA staff at learning@sidra.academy. SIDRA will verify the results of the assessment and refer the participant’s application to SIMI. For more information about the SIMI credentialing scheme, see: http://www.simi.org.sg/What-We-Offer/Mediators/SIMI-Credentialing-Scheme. In addition, participants who complete the course and the related assessment may apply for Australian accreditation through the University of Western Australia. For more information about the application procedure through UWA,please visit: www.mediation.uwa.edu.au.

LLM (JS) candidates will attend extra classes devoted to judicial mediation (featuring faculty who were former and present judicial officers), to provide these candidates with a holistic appreciation of the various parties involved in mediation, their roles and interests as well as necessary skillsets. Besides special talks by judges serving as Judge-Mediators, judicial mediation attachments will also be arranged.

This course will outline key financial regulations in Singapore and Hong Kong, two biggest international financial centres in Asia Pacific, focusing on banking and insurance regulation after the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008. Chinese and Taiwanese law will also be introduced and considered to offer a greater understanding of relevant rules in the Greater China region. Main topics covered in this course may include the regulatory structure and power of regulators, systemic risk and macro regulation, licensing and scope of regulation, capital adequacy rules, transfer of control of financial institutions, corporate governance, financial consumer protection, capital market aspect of banking/insurance regulation, and OTC derivatives, etc. Certain private law aspects (such as the interpretation of ISDA master agreement or cross-border loan agreement) may also be incorporated.

Please click here for the detailed course outline.

This course attempts to define “Artificial Intelligence”, drawing from the history of ideas to outline how our modern understanding of AI develops from a variety of scholarly disciplines and traditions. It also introduces ethics as a self-regulatory framework around Fairness, Accountability, Transparency, Safety, Explainability, and covers current capabilities & applications of AI and technology across different sectors and industries e.g., healthcare, education, autonomous vehicles, financial, legal systems, and the legal profession.

Emerging ethical issues and challenges in AI deployment in the legal sector will be analysed, including the operation of AI and Tech in areas of Public Law – Criminal Law (e.g., crime prediction, policing, algorithmic sentencing) and Family Law. One question would be – How does our understanding of ‘effective’ AI governance sit in relation to the dual-focus on addressing both the near- and long-term challenges of AI?

This course introduces students to topics in digital computing that are increasingly becoming essential for legal professionals who work closely on legal/policy matters relating to technology or those are looking to leverage on the power of modern computing technologies to improve their practice. At the end of the course, participants will have a clearer conceptual understanding of the covered technologies and the trade-offs involved in their adoption.

Topics will be discussed through the lens of larger themes such as trust and reliability to enable a better understanding of the issues likely to be faced by policymakers, regulators and legal professionals as presented by the convergence of technologies that are fast becoming integral to the functioning of modern societies and digital economies. Covered topics include cryptography and cybersecurity, internet technologies such as cloud computing and the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence, and blockchain-related technologies.

This course provides an overview of the foundations, evolution and regulatory challenges of financial technologies (“FinTech”) and how the rise of blockchain, Artificial Intelligence and other emerging technologies are reshaping the financial services industry. For that purpose, it starts by analysing different regulatory strategies to promote financial innovation and how countries are competing to become a FinTech Hub. The course will then examine the future of money and payment systems, with a particular emphasis on the role played by cryptocurrencies and the increasing participation of tech companies and other new competitors in the payment services industry. The course will also explore the implications and regulatory responses to Decentralised Finance (“DeFi”), Central Bank Digital Currencies, Non-Fungible Tokens (“NFTs”), among other developments in the cryptoassets space. Additionally, the course will explain how Fintech is driving individuals’ and firms’ access to finance by providing new fundraising methods such as crowdfunding and Initial Coin Offerings. Likewise, it will also analyse the use and regulatory challenges of Artificial Intelligence in the financial sector. The course will conclude by analysing the financial services industry’s present and future in a data-driven world.

This course introduces you to the blockchain ecosystem, from concept to evolution, from technologies to applications. It analyses governance structures adopted by the blockchain community and investigate the impact of the blockchain technology on business and commerce. Students will learn the defining characteristics of blockchain technologies and the core components as the foundation of trust in a decentralized setting. Applications of blockchain technology in various domains will be examined, and the appropriate legal and regulatory framework for such applications will be discussed. Co-taught by the faculty members from SOL and SCIS, this course links the technological aspect of blockchain with its socio-economic aspect, and explores sensible regulations built on both aspects. Students will be able to develop a rational view about the potentials and limits of blockchain.

Please click here for the detailed course outline.

This course focuses on the law of defamation applicable to both domestic and international business contexts. The publication of defamatory statements by business competitors, consumers, employees and members of the public via the Internet and other business modes of communication is a common phenomenon in this globalised world. Cross-border defamation issues such as jurisdiction, choice of law and the enforcement of judgements in internet defamation cases have assumed greater significance in recent years. The protection of corporate, business and trading reputations and the available remedies will be examined in light of the right of free speech in international human rights instruments, domestic Constitutions and statutes. In addition to the tort of defamation and malicious falsehood (or trade libel), the course may from time to time refer to associated torts such as privacy and passing off where relevant to business defamation. It will discuss, from a comparative perspective, business defamation in the United Kingdom, United States, Singapore and selected common law and Asian jurisdictions.

This course provides an overview of the fundamental principles and methodologies of the conflict of laws (also known as private international law), with focus on their application in commercial transactions. Cross-border commercial transactions are common in a modern globalised era. The conflict of laws addresses three large questions: (1) in which country should the case be tried? (2) which country’s law should be applied to resolve the dispute? (3) What should be the legal effect in one country of a judgment given in another? From the perspective of Singapore law, the questions translate into: (1) When would or should a Singapore court hear the case (and sometimes try to stop it from being heard in another country)? (2) Which country’s law would or should the Singapore court apply to resolve the issue before it? And (3) What legal effect would or should a foreign judgment have in Singapore? This is a course on Singapore conflict of laws, but comparisons will be made from time to time to the laws of other countries.

The DR provides an opportunity for you to undertake in-depth research on a legal topic of your choice. It contributes to the development of a wide range of transferable skills such as writing skills, research and methodological skills, analytical skills, independent thinking and project management skills (action planning, time management, monitoring and evaluation). The capacity to produce a clearly structured and well written piece of work can be highly rewarding from an academic and personal perspective.

As businesses increasingly embrace the use of technology in domestic and cross-border operations, such as blockchain technology, cloud technology, the Internet of Things (IoT) and digitalized trade documents, it is necessary for lawyers and legal policy-makers to not only appreciate the complex legal and policy issues arising from such use of technology, but to also help provide clear legal thinking and innovative ideas in resolving such issues. This unique course aims to provide students with an opportunity to learn about and confront a selection of such issues, develop an understanding of real-world legal-policy issues and exercise skills in critical thinking and creativity to produce usable law and policy recommendations. The issues are selected based on their topicality, feedback from industry, importance to Singapore and ASEAN and a review of academic and business literature. Students will be guided in an exploration and analysis of cross-border trade law issues relating to the intersection of commerce and technology. In the first part of the course, an explanation of the some key issues will be provided to help students understand the broader context of trade in the digital economy. Students will then be exposed to a number of issues which are confronting policy-makers and the private sector, so that they may conduct legal research and craft clear and cogent law and policy recommendations from their findings. Industry professionals will help to provide feedback and discuss students’ findings and recommendations. Industry contacts in this course are likely to be from the fields of finance, technology, commerce, policy/strategy and law.