This article explores whether design of enforcement mechanisms in data privacy laws influences the types of privacy harms addressed by them through evaluating evidence of enforcement from four jurisdictions. It uses three of the foundational design principles identified by Cavoukian to examine if each category of data privacy (data quality, access rights, use, disclosure, security and so forth) should be addressed through enforcement tools suited to their characteristics. The evidence supports the need for proactive regulator-led enforcement, rather than reactive litigation by complainants in relation to some areas. Such enforcement also has an educative function aligning with the principle of transparency. Where full functionality necessitates mechanisms for individuals to litigate complaints, the research found that specialist tribunals were more sympathetic to complainants than were courts. It also discovered that litigation by individuals tended to be linked to disputes between the parties unrelated to privacy and addressed only harms that came to light through complainants' prior knowledge. Finally, the evidence from each jurisdiction studied provides useful lessons for other jurisdictions as to both the conduct targeted and the need for substantive rules such as erasure or the right to be forgotten.

One of the tricky issues that has arisen rather frequently in recent years concerns attempts by intellectual property right owners to expand their rights and remedies so as to cover activities which are said to have been caused by the infringement but which lie downstream of the actual infringement. Are such activities within the scope of the exclusive rights conferred so as to enable the right owner to sue the individual carrying out the downstream activity? Alternatively, might the right owner litigate against the immediate infringer on the basis that his infringement was the "cause" of the downstream activity such as to support a claim for damages in respect of the downstream losses? This article starts with a brief discussion of the reach of process patents into downstream products and then moves into a detailed discussion of the position at common law under the action to protect confidential information.

The Singapore courts have yet to consider the situation in which documents relevant to legal action have been destroyed prior to its commencement to the detriment of the party who would otherwise have relied upon them. Recently the Australian courts have approached the issue by limiting the range of sanctions which a civil court might ordinarily impose (for breach of disclosure obligations) in circumstances which give rise to the common law offences of criminal contempt or "attempting to pervert the course of justice". These developments and the statutory and case-law position in Singapore will be examined with a view to suggesting how the courts here should respond to the pre-action destruction of evidence.

This article examines the role of contributory negligence in claims for assault and battery in the light of several cases which have considered the issue, including, in particular, a recent decision of the English Court of Appeal. It considers the injustice to which the current English law might give rise, and suggests alternative approaches to assault and battery cases in which claimants are partly responsible for the harm they suffer.

This article examines the recoverability of mistaken payments made by bank transfer in practice in Singapore. It is now clearly established under Singapore law that a mistaken payor has a claim in unjust enrichment to recover his mistaken payment. However, it is not so easy for the mistaken payor to enforce his rights. In Singapore, this problem is particularly acute because of bank privacy laws in Singapore which make it difficult for a mistaken payor to discover the identity of the payee. Yet, without the ability to effectively enforce one's unjust enrichment rights, having those rights themselves is of little practical value. The article then proposes a simple way to make it significantly easier and cheaper for mistaken payors to enforce their unjust enrichment rights: by expanding the jurisdiction of the Small Claims Tribunal to encompass these claims. Doing so would enhance access_x000D_ to justice and should be warmly welcomed.

This article analyses the Singaporean tradition of relatively low levels of public expenditure on social security and emphasis on family and personal responsibility through mandatory social account' investments and tax incentives to promote savings; and theAustralian tradition of tax-funded, flat-rate and means tested social security payments for most contingencies. It is suggested that both countries have developed their own particular 'twists' on their historic and cultural inheritances (Singapore blending US-style neoliberalism with Confucian reliance on familial self-provision and low tax rates; Australia breaking from a contributory model due to a strong laborist influence). Tentative observations are offered about the degree of path dependence or otherwise of these models and their contribution to debate in countries contemplating 'parameter changes' to welfare to accommodate globalisation or fiscal challenges.

The legal personality accorded by statute to a company, as distinct from the persons of its members, is probably the most fundamental principle of company law and forms a key building-block of our economic and legal structure. However the principle is not entirely an absolute one: the courts have on occasion asserted their power to disregard that separate personality in order to treat the company as one with its controller. But the rationale and scope of this power have only rarely been articulated in the higher courts. This article focuses on recent judicial analyses of piercing the corporate veil in England, and compares the latest approach of the Singapore courts to the same question.

When I first arrived in Singapore, in 1961, the retail banking world was dominated_x000D_ by British-based banks. The leading players were the Chartered Bank and the Hong_x000D_ Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation. The local banks known to me were_x000D_ the Chung Khiaw Bank, the Lee Hwa Bank and the Overseas-Chinese Banking_x000D_ Corporation ("OCBC"). United Overseas Bank - UOB - had not as yet opened its_x000D_ doors. The same applies to OUB - Overseas Union Bank - which much later, in the_x000D_ nineties, merged with UOB.