TAN 
Zhong Xing

 
Director (Sheridan Fellowship Programme)

Associate Professor

Secretary-General, Asian Law Schools Association

Member

Academic Fellow

Zhong Xing’s research and teaching interests are in contract law, private law and legal theory, and commercial and corporate law more generally. His work is published in some of the world’s leading law journals, and he has received various awards in research and teaching.

FULL BIOGRAPHY

Contact

(65) 6516-4276
BB-03-18

Education

LLM, SJD (Harvard University); LLB (NUS); Advocate & Solicitor (Singapore)

Curriculum Vitae

Current Courses

Law of Contract

Introduction to Legal Theory (B)

Introduction to Legal Theory (C)

Introduction to Legal Theory (F)

Introduction to Legal Theory (G)

A graduate of Harvard Law School and the NUS Law Faculty, Dr. Zhong Xing Tan first joined the faculty as a member of the inaugural batch of Sheridan Fellows, and was appointed Assistant Professor thereafter. Zhong Xing is currently Director of the Sheridan Fellowship Programme and a member of the Leadership Team at NUS Law.

Zhong Xing’s research and teaching interests are in contract law, private law and legal theory, and commercial and corporate law more generally, as well as the various intersection points between these fields. He has written on the role of distributive justice in contract law, the rise of the ‘relational contract’ concept, as well as evolving doctrinal areas including the concept of good faith and the law of contractual interpretation. His recent work extends more broadly into re-thinking the foundations of interpersonal justice in private law theory, drawing from political and moral philosophy, and connecting these to key areas in the law of obligations (both traditional areas such as torts and restitution, as well as newer fields straddling public and private law).

His work has been published in leading general and specialist law journals including the Modern Law Review and the Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, and has been cited by apex courts in different jurisdictions.

Zhong Xing has been the recipient of various awards for research and teaching. These include the Hart Publishing Prize for the best paper by an early career scholar at the Ninth Biennial Conference on the Law of Obligations (2018), and previously, Harvard Law School’s Project on the Foundations of Private Law Prize (2017). He has also been awarded the NUS Faculty Annual Teaching Excellence Award and the NUS University-Level Annual Teaching Excellence Award on various occasions. In earlier years as a student at NUS Law, he was the winner of the Montrose Memorial Prize for Jurisprudence and the Wong Peng Koon Prize for Best Directed Research Paper (2012).

Book Chapters
Tan Zhong Xing and Umakanth Varottil, 'Restraint of Trade in India: Reason (Un)restrained?' in KV Krishnaprasad, Niranjan Venkatesan, Shivprasad Swaminathan and Umakanth Varottil (eds), Foundations of Indian Contract Law (Oxford University Press 2024) 237

Tan Zhong Xing and Tham Chee Ho, 'Frustration' in Andrew Phang (ed), The Law of Contract in Singapore, 2nd Edition (Academy Publishing 2022)

Tan Zhong Xing and Tham Chee Ho, 'Introduction to Judicial Remedies and Common Law Damages' in Andrew Phang (ed), The Law of Contract in Singapore, 2nd Edition (Academy Publishing 2022)

Tan Zhong Xing and Tham Chee Ho, 'Damages Based on Compensation I – Quantification of Loss' in Andrew Phang (ed), The Law of Contract in Singapore, 2nd Edition (Academy Publishing 2022)

Tan Zhong Xing and Tham Chee Ho, 'Damages Based on Compensation II – Quantification of Damages to be Awarded' in Andrew Phang (ed), The Law of Contract in Singapore, 2nd Edition (Academy Publishing 2022)

Tan Zhong Xing and Tham Chee Ho, 'Non-compensatory Remedies I: Specific Remedies at Common Law and in Equity' in Andrew Phang (ed), The Law of Contract in Singapore, 2nd Edition (Academy Publishing 2022)

Tan Zhong Xing and Tham Chee Ho, 'Non-compensatory Remedies II: Remedies arising under the Law of Restitution' in Andrew Phang (ed), The Law of Contract in Singapore, 2nd Edition (Academy Publishing 2022)

Tan Zhong Xing, 'The Property Paradigm in Torts Protecting Contractual Interests' in John Eldridge, Michael Douglas and Claudia Carr (eds), Economic Torts and Economic Wrongs (Bloomsbury Publishing 2021) 9

Journal Articles
Tham Chee Ho and Tan Zhong Xing, 'Contract Law' (2023) 24 Singapore Academy of Law Annual Review of Singapore Cases

Tan Zhong Xing, 'Re-thinking Relational Architecture: Interpersonal Justice Beyond Private Law' (2023) 73 (3) University of Toronto Law Journal 293

Tan Zhong Xing, 'The Enigma of Interpersonal Justice in Private Law Theory' (2023) 43 (4) Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 699

Tan Zhong Xing, 'The Prospects for Pluralism in Contract Theory' (2021) 41 (4) Legal Studies 547

Tan Zhong Xing, 'Illegality and the Promise of Universality' [2020] Journal of Business Law 428

Tan Zhong Xing, 'Where the Action Is: Macro and Micro Justice in Contract Law' (2020) 83 (4) Modern Law Review 725

Tan Zhong Xing, 'The Proportionality Puzzle in Contract Law: A Challenge for Private Law Theory?' (2020) 33 (1) Canadian Journal of Law & Jurisprudence 215

  • Contract Law and Theory
  • Private Law Theory and General Jurisprudence
  • Company Law and Corporate Governance