Justice Debbie Ong delivers 34th Singapore Law Review Lecture

The Honourable Justice Debbie Ong ’89 delivered the 34th Singapore Law Review Lecture at the NUS Law Bukit Timah Campus. Titled “Justice that Heals”, the lecture focused on the concept of therapeutic justice and its importance in family law.

Justice Ong explained that therapeutic justice involves a non-adversarial system of problem-solving as opposed to the common law adversarial system of litigation, to ensure that all parties can heal, move forward positively and discharge their parental obligations to their children. She also talked about how the Family Justice Courts have sought to facilitate therapeutic justice, for instance, through the involvement of counsellors and mediators, as well as the organisation of multidisciplinary teams to manage each case. Drawing upon her wealth of experience in family law, Justice Ong shared her perspective on how best to achieve “justice that heals”.

The lecture will be published in the Singapore Law Review in the second half of 2023. Organised by the Singapore Law Review, the oldest student-run publication in Asia, and sponsored by Clifford Chance, the lecture aims to create awareness of current legal issues and promote legal thought and discussion amongst law students. For more on the SLR, please visit https://www.singaporelawreview.com/.

ABOUT JUSTICE DEBBIE ONG

The Honourable Justice Debbie Ong Siew Ling is Judge of the Appellate Division and Presiding Judge of the Family Justice Courts. Justice Ong earned her Bachelor of Laws from the National University of Singapore in 1989 and Master of Laws at the University of Cambridge in 1991. Her legal career began as an academic at NUS’s Faculty of Law in 1989, specialising in family law. She published the book entitled International Issues in Family Law in January 2015, and has contributed numerous articles in local as well as international scholarly journals.

As Presiding Judge of the Family Justice Courts, she is a specialist judge responsible for much of the recent legal jurisprudence in family law. She co-chaired the inter-agency Committee to Review and Enhance Reforms in the Family Justice System and oversees the implementation of various reforms and the building of a problem-solving family justice system.