The Singapore Penal Code (Cap. 224, 2008 Rev. Ed. Sing.) [Penal Code] is all but identical to the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (No. 45 of 1860) [Indian Penal Code]. It is well-known that Thomas Babington Macaulay was in substance the sole author of the original draft of the Indian Penal Code and that many of the virtues of the original draft survived the legislative process. At the time of its enactment there was nothing comparable in the common law world. The clarity of expression and the precision of its drafting shone brightly when contrasted with what Stanley Yeo aptly describes in his introduction (at p. 1) as "the" confusing and cumbersome state of English criminal law at the time".

Debates about the law, regulation, and governance of robots, artificial intelligence (“AI”), and machine learning have been dominated by voices from North America, Europe, and Australia. While Singapore has hosted conferences at which these matters have been discussed, and while it is clearly an interested party in relation to these debates, a distinctively Singaporean voice has yet to be heard—or, at any rate, it had not been heard prior to the publication of Simon Chesterman’s stimulating book.