Reflections on Singapore Land & Trust Law: Launch of Tan Sook Yee's Principles of Singapore Land Law and Property & Trust Law in Singapore

Associate Professor LYE Lin Heng

Lye Lin Heng graduated in law from the University of Singapore, and holds Masters degrees in law from the University of London (King's College) and Harvard University.  She teaches and researches in Property Law and Environmental Law at NUS.  She was Vice-Dean and Director of the Faculty's Graduate Programme from 1995-1998.  She is a member of Singapore’s Land Titles Strata Board and was a board member of HDB from 2002-2005.  She was awarded the Public Service Medal in 2016.  She will retire from NUS at the end of June this year, but will remain as an Adjunct Professor teaching a course on Environmental Law.

In the environment field, she is Hon. Advisor and former Director of the Law Faculty's Asia-Pacific Centre for Environmental Law (APCEL).  She was instrumental in crafting the NUS multi-disciplinary Masters in Environmental Management (MSc (Env Mgt)) [MEM] Programme which was launched in 2001, and has the collaboration of nine faculties/schools in NUS.  She chaired its Programme Management Committee for 18 years and has just stepped down, remaining on the programme as its Special Advisor.  She is a member of the Board of Directors, WWF Singapore, & was Honorary Legal Advisor to Singapore’s oldest NGO, the Nature Society, for many years.  She is a former member of the Board of Governors, IUCN Academy of Environmental Law & co-chair of its Teaching and Research Committee. She is Visiting Associate Professor at Yale University's School of Forestry & Environmental Studies where she has taught a course on Comparative Environmental Law since 2003.

Assistant Professor Alvin SEE

Alvin See is an Assistant Professor of Law (Education) at Singapore Management University. He graduated with an LL.B (First Class Honours) from the University of Leeds and later obtained a B.C.L. (Distinction) from the University of Oxford. At SMU, he teaches the Law of Property, the Law of Equity and Trusts and Business Law. He researches mainly on private law, particularly property, trust, unjust enrichment and remedies, but he also dabbles in animal law. His published works have been cited by the highest appellate courts in Singapore and Malaysia as well as leading treatises on private law.

Associate Professor YIP Man

Yip Man is an Associate Professor of Law in the School of Law at the Singapore Management University. She graduated with an LL.B. from the National University of Singapore. After completing her pupilage and a brief stint as an associate at Allen & Gledhill LLP (Litigation and Dispute Resolution Department), she went on to obtain her B.C.L. from the University of Oxford, where she was in residence at Keble College. After completing her B.C.L. studies, she joined WongPartnership LLP (Litigation and Dispute Resolution Group (Commercial & Corporate Disputes)) as an associate, where she practised mainly in the area of international commercial arbitration. She joined Singapore Management University, School of Law in July 2010 as Assistant Professor of Law and was promoted to Associate Professor (with tenure) on 1 January 2017. She is presently the Deputy Director of Centre for Cross-Border Commercial Law in Asia and the Private Law Cluster Coordinator at the School of Law.

Her principal research interests are in unjust enrichment and restitution, equity and trusts, private international law, contract law and remedies. Her work has been cited by the Singapore Court of Appeal, the Singapore High Court and the High Court of England and Wales. In recognition of her research, she was awarded the DS Lee Fellowship in 2016 and the Lee Kong Chian Fellowship in 2018.

Professor TAN Sook Yee 

Professor Tan Sook Yee taught property law at the Faculty of Law of the National University of Singapore from 1964 to 2005 and also served as its Dean between 1980 and 1987. She is currently on the Board of Directors for New Opera Singapore – a platform for young local talents in Western vocal art forms.

Professor Kelvin LOW

Kelvin F K Low is Professor of Law at City University of Hong Kong. Prior to this, he held appointments at National University of Singapore, the University of Hong Kong and Singapore Management University. He read law at National University of Singapore and Oxford University. Kelvin’s research interest spans the field of private law but with a particular interest in property, broadly defined. He has published internationally with leading journals such as the Law Quarterly Review, the Modern Law Review, Melbourne University Law Review, Lloyd’s Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly and Legal Studies. He is a co-author of the 2nd edition of The Law of Personal Property, the leading personal property text in the Commonwealth and co-author of the 3rd and 4th edition of Tan Sook Yee’s Principles of Singapore Land Law, the leading Singapore land law text. His works have been cited by all levels of the Singapore Courts, the Australian High Court, the English High Court, the Malaysian Federal Court, the English, Scottish, New Zealand and Australian Law Commissions, the Irish Sales Law Review Group as well as leading texts throughout the Commonwealth. His article on legal taxonomy is a prescribed reading in the Legal Research Method Seminar for Oxford’s DPhil. He served on numerous editorial positions in Singapore and Hong Kong and is presently on the editorial board of Trust Law International and is the joint section editor for Singapore and Hong Kong for the Property Law Review. He has served as referee for leading journals across the Commonwealth, including Law Quarterly Review, Legal Studies, Journal of Equity, Melbourne University Law Review, Sydney Law Review, and Hong Kong Law Journal, as well as for the Leverhulme Trust, and was recently inducted into the International Academy of Estate and Trust Law.

Professor TANG Hang Wu

Tang Hang Wu is a Professor and Director of the Centre for Cross-Border Commercial Law in Asia at the School of Law Singapore Management University. His research interests include property law, restitution, equity, trusts, charity and nonprofit law. Prior to this, he taught at the Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore for twelve years. Hang Wu has published widely and his work has been relied on by all levels of the Singapore courts, the Federal Court of Malaysia, the Royal Court of Jersey, the Caribbean Court of Appeal, law reform committees in the Commonwealth, major textbooks and law journals. He is also frequently instructed to act as Counsel and expert in contentious and non-contentious matters. Hang Wu was described in a judgment by the Singapore Court of Appeal as “a leading expert” who is “well-known locally and internationally” in unjust enrichment and equity. In recognition of his expertise in equity and trusts, Hang Wu was made an overseas member of the Chancery Bar Association of England and Wales, and a country correspondent of Trusts and Trustees.

Outside his work in academia and practice, Hang Wu is a member of the Strata Titles Board, a director of the non-profit Special Needs Trust Company, a Volunteer Assistant Director at the Legal Aid Bureau and a member of the Licensing and Practice Committee of the Council of Estate Agencies. Hang Wu studied law at the National University of Singapore and at Cambridge (Masters and PhD) where he won prizes for academic excellence.