Remembering a Gentle Giant: The Late Emeritus Professor Tan Yock Lin

Our colleague and friend, Emeritus Professor Tan Yock Lin, passed away suddenly following a road accident on 7 July 2023. Three months later, we still grieve over his loss. Professor Tan will always be missed by his many colleagues and friends here at NUS Law.

When asked to share a few words about Yock Lin, Associate Professor Wee Meng Seng acknowledged that he still gets emotional when he thinks of him: “Words cannot describe the shock and sense of loss I felt when I received news of Yock Lin’s passing. My office used to be close to his, and we met often along the corridor. Our conversations ranged far and wide; and Yock Lin’s breadth of knowledge and insights would always shine through. Even though he was my mentor, he treated me as an equal. With characteristic humility, he inquired about the law of fraudulent conveyances, a topic in insolvency law with which I was familiar, when he was writing his book on property law. Many have spoken of his kindness, and I felt it very keenly when he drove over half of Singapore on unfamiliar roads to pay me a visit after I suffered a stroke. Yock Lin occupies a special place in my heart and he shall always be missed.”

Although words cannot undo a death, they can be a celebration of life. For all that Yock Lin has given to NUS Law in his lifetime and what he means to us, it is only right that we honour him for the person that he is: a person of immense generosity who shared his knowledge and wisdom with those he knew and worked with. Colleagues have described Yock Lin in a variety of ways – as both gentle and a gentleman, somebody who kept a low profile despite his many achievements, an insightful and brilliant academic, with a lovely baritone voice. However, they were unanimous in seeing him as knowledgeable and generous, always willing to give of himself to those around him.

Professor Ho Hock Lai, one of Yock Lin’s informal mentees, said: “Yock Lin was benevolent to the core, someone who was constitutionally incapable of harbouring ill-will towards anyone. He was easy to warm to, ever friendly, always wearing a smile and prone to laughter in casual conversation. But when it came to discussing the law, the intensity was palpable; Yock Lin never lacked conviction in what the right view was and never wavered in trying to make you see the light.”

That same light also shone in public. Yock Lin was influential in numerous areas of law reform, including illegality, trust law, conflict of laws, and evidence and procedure: he was awarded the Public Service Medal in 2008 for his contributions to law reform. His many books range across diverse fields, including Evidence, Criminal Procedure, Trusts and Equity, Conflicts of Laws, Personal Property, and the Legal Profession. Many of these remain the leading texts in their areas. As Dean Andrew Simester wrote to NUS Law staff when announcing Yock Lin’s death, “Nobody I know had Professor Tan’s width and depth of knowledge in Singapore law.”

According to Professor Hans Tjio: “Despite his busy writing and teaching schedule, he once said, at a difficult time (SARS), that the university asks little service of its faculty and so, when it does, we cannot turn it down. This generosity of spirit was also seen in the fact that he truly gave legal advice. He shunned formal outside consultancy and his idea of it was to provide an hour of his time over coffee at Starbucks to practitioners who asked for his help. Other than the coffee, he thought that it was enough consideration that he could learn something about practice in return. It is no wonder that so many former students showed up at his wake and funeral. He will be truly missed.”

Yock Lin was also one of our first colleagues to achieve international recognition for his contributions to leading overseas as well as Singaporean journals, including the Law Quarterly Review, Legal Studies, the Journal of Business Law, and Lloyd’s Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly. The range of his impact reflects the fact that he was the kind of pluralist specialist that is no longer seen in modern academia.

The pain felt at the passing of one who is so loved may subside over time, but it will never quite disappear. In his life, Yock Lin gave so generously of all that he had – his knowledge, his insights, his wisdom, his time, and most of all his friendship. The Faculty owes him a profound debt of gratitude, one that we can only repay by keeping the torch of what he believed in burning bright, so that generations of students at NUS Law will continue to reap the fruits of his labour and love. As a law school, we will do our part to ensure that his legacy prevails.

It is impossible to forget someone who gave us so much to remember. The loss from your passing is immeasurable. We may have lost you, but heaven has gained another angel. We miss you, Yock Lin! Rest in peace.

Tan Yock Lin Memorial Fund

The late Professor Tan Yock Lin spent four decades as a distinguished academic at NUS Law and will always
be remembered as a gentle legal giant, and a generous and much-loved colleague, mentor and teacher.
His colleagues have started this initiative to raise funds to honour Yock Lin’s memory, and welcome
your support to establish an endowed prize or bursary named after him (the target amount to be raised is
S$75,000 – S$150,000, to meet the minimum gift levels for an endowed prize or bursary).
To donate to this fund, please click here.