12 Feb 2020

Dr Ardavan Arzandeh  
University of Bristol 

How should Exclusive Jurisdiction Clauses in International Trusts be Treated?

5 Feb 2020

Associate Professor Hengameh Saberi 
Osgoode Hall Law School

Cynicism in International Law: A modus of Political Agency?

20 Jan 2020

Associate Professor Chen Jianlin 
Melbourne Law School

Fraudulent Sex Criminalization in Singapore

19 Nov 2019

Ms Emilia Lundberg 
Advokatfirman Lundberg & Gleiss KB

International Arbitration in Sweden

8 Nov 2019

Dr Ryan Catterwell
University of Queensland

The Cognition of Contract Interpretation

31 Oct 2019

Dr Susan Thomas
Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research

Fintech in India: The state of the art

8 Oct 2019

Dr Maria Adele Carrai
Harvard University of Asia Center

Sovereignty in China. A Genealogy of a Concept since 1840

17 Sep 2019

Dr Orkun Akseli
Durham University

Blockchain and the UNCITRAL Model Law on Secured Transactions: A Question of Compatibility

16 Sep 2019

Professor John Murphy
Lancaster University

Concurrent Liability in Tort and Contract: Un(der)explored Issues

12 Sep 2019

Dr Yarik Kryvoi
University of West London

Public and Private International Adjudication: Process, Substance and Legitimacy

20 Aug 2019

Professor Birke Häcker
University of Oxford

European imprints and the ‘comparative common law’ phenomenon

6 Aug 2019

Mr Torakichi Jesús Oba
EA, CPA, San Diego

US International Taxation Regime – GILTI & Intellectual Property, and Tax Residency: An Overview

5 Aug 2019

Associate Professor Andrea Stazi
European University of Rome

Online Intermediary Liability in Comparative Law

3 Jul 2019

Professor David B. Wilkins
Harvard Law School

Innovation and the Future of Legal Practice

12 Apr 2019

Dr Ardavan Arzandeh
University of Bristol

Forum (Non) Conveniens in England: Past, Present, and Future

27 Mar 2019

Professor A. Kumaralingam
Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore

Prosecutorial Discretion and the Rule of Law

13 Mar 2019

Mr Ow Kim Kit 
Partner, Bird and Bird

Mr Vincent Ooi

Lecturer of Law, SMU School of Law

Singapore Variable Capital Economy

27 Feb 2019

Dr Weihuan Zhou
University of New South Wales Law

China's Compliance with the Rulings of the World Trade Organisation

21 Feb 2019

Professor Benjamin Geva 
Osgoode Hall Law School of York University, Toronto

The Quickening Pace of Money and Payments Digitisation: Operational and Legal Aspects

30 Jan 2019

Associate Professor Chen Jianlin
Melbourne Law School

Sex and Lies in Asia Pacific: A Comparative Study of Fraudulent Sex Criminalisation in Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong

21 Jan 2019

Professor Marco Greggi
Department of Law, University of Ferrara

In Praise of Privacy in the Age of Exchange of Information

27 Nov 2018

Dr Andreas Kokkinis
Warwick Law School

Current Changes in Banking Regulation: A Global Perspective

24 Oct 2018

Judge Sir Howard Morrison QC
Former President, Judge of the Appeals Division of the International Criminal Court

International Criminal Law - A Road Less Taken

11 Oct 2018

Dilan Thampapillai
Australian National University

Can Copyright Protect Works Created by Artificial Intelligence?

11 Sep 2018

Dr Mark Bennett
Faculty of Law, Victoria University of Wellington

When Does a 'Trust Deed' Not Create a Trust? Recent Developments in the 'Illusory Trust' Doctrine.

5 Sep 2018

Professor Jo Shaw
Salvese Chair of European Institutions; School of Law, University of Edinburgh

Citizenship and Constitutional Law: Reflections on a Complex Relationship

4 Sep 2018

Robin Hui Huang
Professor of Law, Faculty of Law, Chinese University of Hong Kong

The (Re)Introduction of Dual-Class Share Structures in Hong Kong: A Historical and Comparative Analysis

23 Aug 2018

Dr Yin Huifen
Associate Professor, Shanghai University of Political Science and Law

Consumer Credit and Over-indebtedness in China

23 Aug 2018

Dr Weixia Gu
Associate Professor of Law, University of Hong Kong

The Developing World of Arbitration in the Asia Pacific

16 Aug 2018

Dr Haksoo Ko
Professor of Law, School of Law, Seoul National University

Machine Learning and the Law

14 Aug 2018

Professor Linda MC Schoeman-Malan
Emeritus Professor in the Department of Private Law, Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria

The Ailing Testator

6 Aug 2018

Dr Esther Erlings
Lecturer in Law, Flinders University

Is (Avoiding Confrontation) Positive to Everyone's Life? Or Whether Hong Kong Should Offer Parent-Child Mediation Services to Families in Conflict

27 Jun 2018

James Lee
Reader in English Law, The Dickson Poon School of Law, King's College London

Research Strategies - Thinking Like a Movie Studio

31 May 2018

Professor David McLauchlan
Victoria University of Wellington

Avoided Loss and Mitigation in the UK Supreme Court

26 Apr 2018

Jamie Glister

Companies and Trust

10 Apr 2018

Dr Ardavan Arzandeh
Lecturer in Law, University of Bristol

Reformulating the Common Law Recognition-and-Enforcement Regime

6 Apr 2018

Duc V Trang
Managing Director of Landon Advisory Services; Senior Consultant, Singapore Academy of Law

Rethinking the Education and Training of Law Students and Lawyers: Design-based Pedagogy

27 Mar 2018

Professor Souchirou Kozuka
Professor of Law, Gakushuin University, Tokyo

Associate Professor Helena Whalen-Bridge

Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore

Comparative Legal Reasoning

22 Mar 2018

Dr Andromachi Georgosouli
Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Commercial Law Studies (CCLS) at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL)

New Voice in Commercial Law Lecture with CCLS, QMUL

Speakers:

Associate Professor Wan Wai Yee
Associate Professor of Law, SMU School of Law

Public and Private Enforcement of Corporate and Securities Laws: An Empirical Comparison of Hong Kong and Singapore

Associate Professor Pasha Hsieh
Associate Professor of Law, SMU School of Law

The RCEP, New Asian Regionalism and the Global South

12 Mar 2018

Dr Angela Zhang
Associate Professor of Law, University of Hong Kong

Corporate Loyalty to the Party: Evidence from Charter Amendments

8 Mar 2018

Dr Maria Ioannidou
Senior Lecturer in Competition Law at the School of Law, Queen Mary, University of London

Public Redress for Competition Law Violations: Between Traditional Competition Law Enforcement, Responsive Regulation, Restorative Justice and Market Democratisation

6 Mar 2018

Salar Ghahramani
Assistant Professor of Business Law and International Law & Policy, Pennsylvania State University

Public and Private Law Conflicts in Fiduciary Jurisprudence

21 Feb 2018

William Swadling
Reader in the Law of Property, University of Oxford; Visiting Professor, National University of Singapore

Unjust Enrichment: Value, Rights and Trusts

20 Feb 2018

Professor Dan Hunter
Dean, Swinburne Law School

Artificial Intelligence and the Future of the Law

13 Feb 2018

Professor Richard Garnett
Professor of Private International Law, the University of Melbourne; Consultant and Barrister, International Disputes

Co-Existing and Conflicting Jurisdiction and Arbitration Clauses

12 Feb 2018

Lauren Quinn
LL.B (QUB), BL, Accredited Mediator, Postgraduate Certificate Training & Education, PhD Candidate (Queen's College Cambridge)

Post Contract, Pre Completion: No Longer a Time for Trust

For further details and synopses of the respective Visiting Academic Series, please click here.

1 Dec 2017

Paula Kemp
Doctoral Researcher at Leiden University / Visiting scholar at the School of Law, SMU

Performance Remedies for Commercial Sales Transactions, a comparative study of the contract law of the Netherlands, Singapore and China contrasted against international sales law standards

4 Oct 2017

Susan Fortney
Professor and Director of the Program for Advancement of Legal Ethics at Texas A&M School of Law in Fort Worth, Texas

Ethical Conduct and Organizational Structures, Systems, and Culture in Large Law Firms

18 Aug 2017

Professor Geraint Howells, Chair Professor of Commercial Law and Dean of the Law School
Dr Andre Janssen
Dr John Ho
City University of Hong Kong

Consumer Protection in the Common Law Jurisdictions of Asia

30 May 2017

Professor Holger Spamann
Harvard Law School

Comparative Law Cliches and "Experimental" Evidence

The pandemic has been a catalyst for disruption and change across industries and professions. The law sector, in particular, has undergone numerous shifts in recent times. Despite the impact of this unprecedented crisis, which changed the way we work overnight, legal education has maintained its perennial lustre: Demand has grown for lawyers in some practice areas like technology and intellectual property, fraud and investigations, project development and finance, and the dispute resolution practice — which saw some practitioners describing 2020 as the "busiest period in their career".

As Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon remarked during his Mass Call Address: 2021: "[...] we must imagine and develop a new and more efficient way of administering justice if we are going to avoid a justice gap of unmet legal needs. At the same time, the march of technology has opened up numerous possibilities as to how we may do so. Much has changed, and much more will surely change." As such, lawyers of tomorrow need to adapt to a landscape transformed by global events and digital advancement to thrive in a post-pandemic era.

Highly competitive and rigorous, the SMU Juris Doctor (JD) Law Degree provides a legal education that addresses the current challenges faced by the industry. It is a postgraduate programme offered by the SMU Yong Pung How School of Law designed to prepare candidates with prior university degrees in other disciplines or those who have studied law in civil law countries and other jurisdictions to practice the law in Singapore.

The JD programme bears the hallmarks of holistic learning, active seminar-style interactions, and international and practical exposure, synonymous with the SMU pedagogy. Our JD students will have ample opportunities to stay familiar with economics, finance, psychology, and technology, among others, and the development of law in other major economies of the world, such as the US and China. At the same time, our elaborately designed JD tracks enable students to sharpen their expertise in the most promising areas of legal practices from early on. The unique combination of holistic education with specialized skill training gives our graduates a leg up to achieve excellence in their professional careers. We believe that while the legal industry increasingly relies on experts with a deep understanding of the areas of their practices, real depth can only be built on breadth.

As JD candidates possess a variety of prior degrees and work experience and hail from diverse nationalities and cultures, they bring with them a unique vibrancy and gamut of perspectives to the classroom. This diversity of the cohort and a world-class, global faculty contribute to lively discussions and the development of graduates who can distinguish themselves in critical thinking, presentation, and making sound judgments.

A full-time three-year programme, the curriculum was formulated by legal academics and practitioners after extensive discussions and endorsed by the Singapore Institute of Legal Education and Ministry of Law. The Yong Pung How School of Law's participative learning environment helps develop confidence and analytical and presentation skills and cultivates leaders of the legal industry and beyond by building on students' experience and calibre.

Classes are deliberately kept small with a multi-faceted approach to course assessment, including class participation, term assignments and oral and written presentations. A distinctive feature of the JD programme is the opportunity for real-world exposure — students gain insights through participation by lawyers from practice, government and the judiciary in classroom teaching. This provides students with the opportunity to integrate practical expertise with theory and doctrine.

For those considering a career in the ever-evolving and complex legal landscape, here are some insider tips on ways to gain an edge during the SMU JD programme admissions process:

1. Be an early bird applicant
   Candidates may stand a higher chance if they apply early as JD admissions are conducted on a rolling basis. Applications for the intake will close once the class is filled. All remaining applicants will then be considered for the following year's intake.
2. Ensure all required documents are submitted
   All documents (including reference letters) have to be submitted before being shortlisted for a written test. As confidential reference forms are submitted directly to the admissions office, candidates may request referees to inform them when the references have been sent in to plan for submitting application documents.
3. Ace the written test
   The one-hour written test will be conducted once a minimum of 10 applicants has submitted all their supporting documents (including reference letters). The admission committee is looking for analytical ability, fluency, coherence in arguments and the ability to pick out key points. No prior legal knowledge is needed, and there is nothing to prepare. Just keep calm and write.
4. Share your perspectives during the interview
   Only those who have passed the written test will be shortlisted for an interview. The interviews will be conducted once a minimum of 10 applicants has been shortlisted. The interview format generally involves two faculty members and one or two candidates. During the interview, remember to keep your cool and form an opinion — all without taking umbrage when others disagree with your point of view.
5. No "chope-ing"
   Apply during the year you wish to enrol as there is no deferred admission for the JD programme.