July 1956: Dr Lionel Astor Sheridan takes up his duties as the first Professor of Law and Head of the Law Department at the University of Malaya.


September 1957: The first law students are admitted to the Department of Law.

July 1959: The University of Malaya Law Review is published (the journal was later renamed the Malaya Law Review and subsequently, the Singapore Journal of Legal Studies, which continues to this day).

November 1959: The Department of Law attains Faculty status and Professor Sheridan is elected as its first Dean.

1960: The Government of the Federation officially recognises the University of Malaya law degree as an initial qualification to enter the legal profession. The Asia Foundation generously endows the Constitutional Law Professorship. Professor Harry E Groves, former Dean of the Southern Texas University Law School, becomes the first Constitutional Law Professor.

1961: Professor Leslie C Green is appointed to the newly-created Chair of International Law, and Commercial Law is introduced as a principal subject.  

The pioneer batch of 22 law students graduates on 10th July; 8 of them subsequently join the Faculty as assistant lecturers or part-time teachers.

1962: The University of Singapore is established following the reconstitution of the University of Malaya.

 

1963: The University confers an honorary LLD on founding Dean Lee Sheridan.

Harry E Groves succeeds BL Chua as Dean. Groves secures a grant of US$300,000 from the Ford Foundation to purchase books for the Law Library, to institutionalise scholarships and to fund research projects and staff recruitment.

On 16th September, Singapore joins the Federation of Malaysia. In November, Leslie C Green succeeds Harry Groves as Dean.

1965: On 9^th August, Singapore becomes an independent republic.

In September, Leslie Green leaves the Faculty and is succeeded by James Louis Montrose.

1967: The Ford Foundation grants US$450,000 to develop the Faculty by providing for visiting professors and teaching fellows, advanced training and teaching experience for local staff, and consultant services for the Law Library and its expansion.

1968: Dr Thio Su Mien ‘61, the Faculty’s first alumnus to join its teaching staff in 1962, is appointed Vice-Dean. At the close of Geoffrey Bartholomew’s term as Dean at the end of the year, Thio is elected Dean, making her the first woman, the first local graduate and the youngest person ever to be Dean of the Faculty.

1969: The student journal, Me Judice, was transformed into The Singapore Law Review (SLR). The SLR continues to this day as a student-run publication.

1970: The Faculty inaugurates a new public lecture series, the Braddell Memorial Lecture. The Lecture was named after the late Dato’ Sir Roland Braddell, the scion of Singapore’s most illustrious legal family.

1971: Thio Su Mien leaves for private practice and is succeeded as Dean by her classmate, Tommy Koh ‘61. Koh holds the distinction of being the first graduate to have attained First Class Honours from the Faculty. At the time of his appointment, Koh had just returned from his stint as Singapore’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations.

1973: The Faculty starts sending a team of students each year to the Philip C Jessup International Law Moot Competition in the United States, which is held annually in Washington DC. The Jessup Moot is now regarded as the most prestigious international mooting competition in the world. To date, the NUS Faculty of Law holds the record as the law school with the most number of victories at the moot – four in total.

Prof S Jayakumar ’63
Dean, 1974-1980

1980: S Jayakumar leaves the Faculty to enter politics. He is currently Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Law. Jayakumar is succeeded by Mrs Tan Sook Yee as Dean.

1987: Tan Lee Meng ’72 succeeds Tan Sook Yee as Dean.  As Dean, Tan recruited many young faculty who later became the core of the law school.
      

1991: The Malaya Law Review is renamed the Singapore Journal of Legal Studies.

1992: Tan Lee Meng is succeeded by Chin Tet Yung as Dean. Tan is appointed the University’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor, and is today a Judge of the Supreme Court of Singapore.

1993: The David Marshall Professorship is established in honour of David Marshall, pre-eminent criminal lawyer and also Singapore’s first Chief Minister and subsequent Ambassador to France. Professor Francis Reynolds of Oxford becomes the first David Marshall Professor. 

1994: The Faculty, represented by Ang Cheng Hock ’94, Jayanthi Sadanandan ’94, Tan Ken Hwee ’94, Michael Ewing-Chow ’94 and Christopher Daniel ’94, wins the Jessup Competition for the third time. 

The Faculty begins to develop student exchange programmes with leading law schools in Canada, Australia, England and the United States.

1996: The Asia Pacific Centre for Environmental Law is established.

The Faculty receives a $2 million donation from retired lawyer and philanthropist, C J Koh, to set up the C J Koh Professorship in Law. The late Mr Koh’s additional bequests financed the renovation of the Law Library, now renamed the C J Koh Law Library.

1997: The Faculty launches its second academic journal, the Singapore Journal of International and Comparative Law. 

1998: The Centre for Commercial Law Studies (CCLS) is established.

2001: Chin Tet Yung is succeeded by Tan Cheng Han ’87 as Dean.

Prof Tan Cheng Han S.C.
Dean, 2001-present

The Faculty becomes the first law school in the world to win the prestigious Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition four times. The Faculty was represented by Sangeeta Subbrahmanyam ’01, Chan Ho Ming ’01, Kabir Singh ’02, Dahvinia Aziz ’02 and Jason Chan ’02.

2002: The Faculty receives a gift of $2 million from Chief Justice Yong Pung How LLD ’01 and Mrs Yong Wei Woo to establish the Yong Shook Lin Professorship in Intellectual Property Law.

The first issue of LawLink – the Faculty’s alumni magazine – is produced. 

The Faculty launches a comprehensive Legal Writing Programme – a first in Asia - to systematically equip law students with analytical, research, writing and communication skills to help them excel in the competitive international market for legal services.  

In its debut effort, the Faculty becomes the first Asian law school to win the Willem C Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot in Vienna.

2003: The Faculty launches three specialist Masters (LLM) programmes in corporate and financial services law; international and comparative law; and  intellectual property and technology law

The Faculty receives a gift of $4 million from the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore to endow a Professorship in Maritime Law. 

The Faculty establishes the Asian Law Institute (ASLI) with nine other leading law schools in Asia. The ASLI Secretariat is housed at the Faculty. 

The Faculty launches a specialist Masters (LLM) programme in Chinese Law with its ASLI partners, Peking University and the East China University of Politics and Law.

2004: Beginning with Volume 8, the Singapore Year Book of International Law  succeeds the Singapore Journal of International & Comparative Law, thereby completing a process which began with the first scholarly documentation of Singapore's international law practice in 1977.

The Faculty partners one of China 's top law schools, the East China University of Politics and Law (ECUPL), to offer a specialist Masters of Law (LL.M.) degree in International Business Law in Shanghai from July 2005.

NUS Faculty of Law wins the 2004 Asia Cup International Law Moot Court Competition

A Faculty team, sponsored by the Singapore Red Cross, emerges as Champions in the 2nd International Humanitarian Law (IHL) Moot Competition held in Hong Kong in March.

2005:  The Faculty jointly launches two double honours degree programmes with the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, and NUS Business School consecutively: Economics and Law, Business Administration and Law.

The Faculty wins the Asia Pacific Regional of the Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Competition.

The government announces that the Bukit Timah Campus will be returned to NUS. It was also decided that the Faculty of Law will move from Kent Ridge to Bukit Timah.

2006:

The Faculty participates in the Oxford International Intellectual Property Mooting Competition for the first time and beats leading universities to win it. 

The Faculty makes its historic move home to Bukit Timah, where it all began.