Copyright’s “negative space” is an area in which creation and innovation can thrive without significant protection from copyright law, and the fashion industry is one such paradigmatic example. The rapid development of technology – especially with the accelerating use of generative artificial intelligence in the creation of artistic works – is resulting in the increasing expansion of this negative space. Copying appears to be de rigueur in the fashion industry, and manifests itself on a spectrum that spans permissible referencing to tolerated fast fashion knockoffs to illegal counterfeiting. This article explores how the fashion industry nonetheless will continue to thrive in the next decade, and how designers may harness the myriad technological tools available to them to positively enhance their creations in this negative space.

Artificial intelligence is increasingly being used by trade mark offices around the world. Offices are developing and making available AI-based “pre-clearance” tools that are designed to provide automated “assessments” of whether applications for trade mark registration are likely to face obstacles in examination. This article considers some fundamental questions about such AI-based tools, working on the assumption that offices will continue to invest in them and consider placing greater reliance on their output. It explores some general, rule-of-law-based concerns which such tools raise, as well as more specific problems with the operation of these tools in the context of the trade mark registration system. These problems include the fact that such tools are unable to replicate what we demand from human assessors applying complex, multi-factorial and subjective legal tests, and that the “data” on which such tools are likely to be trained may include decisions that are flawed, erroneous, or based on reasoning that has been overturned.

Constructive trusts occupy a unique and powerful position in common law. They are one of equity’s most potent tools for resolving property disputes. At the same time, the incremental and siloed way in which constructive trust doctrines have developed has generated significant confusion, both in their internal rationales and in their cross‑border applications. This article argues that, by approaching constructive trusts systematically – starting with a clear definition that distinguishes them from express and resulting trusts; analysing them as replicative, reflective or transformative constructive trusts; and then applying that analytical framework to the institutional and remedial constructive trust debate, as well as to choice of law matters – we can begin clearly to see patterns and principles that were previously obscured.

Legal advocacy is difficult enough in one’s native language. Conducting oral submissions in Japanese – a language with distinct honorific registers, grammatical structures, and legal terminology – presents an exceptional challenge for native English speakers. Yet it is precisely this challenge that makes Japanese-language mooting a valuable site for legal education in Singapore. Writing as two coaches and two student participants, this article presents our collective reflections on Japanese language mooting at the Faculty of Law of the National University of Singapore from 2023 to 2025. This article makes three contributions. First, it provides an in-depth account of Japanese language mooting as a site for multilingual legal education in Singapore. Second, it demonstrates which aspects of legal skills training prove most valuable for multilingual legal practice. Finally, it examines the use of generative artificial intelligence (“AI”) tools for legal translation.

This paper examines the interplay between statutory severance and equity on joint tenancies in the Land Titles Act 1993. It is argued that the severance, effected by way of statute or in equity, must, first and foremost, align with the objective of providing certainty in registered land dealings in the Singapore Torrens system. Further, the severance must not be inconsistent with the intention of Parliament as reflected in the LTA. Notwithstanding the requirement of registration for severance in the LTA, the various modes of severance in equity as laid down in Williams v Hensman are not ousted by the LTA as they still have a role to play in appropriate circumstances in respect of registered land.