Book Title: Debating Legal Pluralism and Constitutionalism

Publisher: Springer

Abstract: This chapter examines the sources and manifestations of pluralism in the Singapore legal system. As a former British colony, Singapore has a legal system that is very much influenced by British common law and constitutional ideas. At the same time, Singapore sits in a geographical region where the social-political and legal context was partly shaped by Islam, which was the majority religion in the region. Within this context, Singapore’s legal system is distinctly and self-avowedly pluralistic, as it seeks to accommodate traditional legal systems in the form of Muslim personal laws, while resisting developments in the common law that are viewed as ‘foreign’.