Book Title: The Role of Lawyers in Access to Justice: Asian and Comparative Perspectives

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Abstract: The government in Singapore is highly centralized and powerful. In this environment, access to justice would seemingly be determined by the government. But while the government does play a major role in access to justice, e.g. by funding legal aid and supporting pro bono schemes, other actors impact access to justice. The chapter examines how access to justice developed between lawyers and the government, starting from the initial government position of implementing civil but not criminal legal aid, to the Law Society’s creation of the Criminal Legal Aid Scheme in 1985 and its 2006 Legal Aid Review Report that prompted many improvements, to the government’s 2013 decision to fund broad-based criminal legal aid. The chapter argues that access to justice in Singapore should be viewed primarily as a government and lawyer dynamic, and that although the government exercises more power over a variety of decisions, these two actors have negotiated a changing relationship over the years that continues to offer new possibilities.