Jurisprudential problems attendant on drug control have assumed increasing complexity and importance in modern times. The policy issues involved are typically illustrated by legislative provisions and decided cases in the three jurisdictions chosen for analysis in this article — Singapore, Hong Kong and Canada. The structural framework and the component elements of drug offences are differently conceived in these jurisdictions. These differences have significant implications in regard to the basis and scope of liability for drug offences. The purpose of this article is to focus on these problems and to assess lines of development of the modern law in the light of policy objectives.

In recent years cases have been brought in various jurisdictions involving claims against doctors by persons who are not their patients. The claims have related to AIDS and other sexually communicable diseases which the persons in question have contracted from the doctors' patients. In these cases, the courts have held that doctors owe a duty of care in negligence to warn the sexual partners of their patients (usually via the patients) of the risks involved in participating in a sexual relationship with these patients. This article examines and analyses the relevant cases and considers the direction which the law in this area is likely to take both in Singapore and other Commonwealth countries.

The Court of Appeal's decision in Frost is important as it is the first decision of the lower courts concerning claims by rescuers and employees for psychiatric injuries after the two House of Lords' judgments of Alcock and Page. It is evident that the judges in Frost were presented with an uphill task of interpreting and applying the principles laid down by the Law Lords in Alcock and Page, in particular the definition of primary and secondary victims. This article examines the difficulties faced by the courts in categorising rescuers and employees as primary or secondary victims for the purposes of imposing liability for nervous shock.

The author examines Canada’s new Anti-terrorism Act enacted in response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The first part assesses whether the existing criminal law was adequate to deal with the threat of terrorism. The second part examines the crucial definitions of terrorist activities and terrorist groups that have been added to Canadian criminal law and whether these definitions satisfy constitutional requirements of legality, specificity, the presumption of innocence and respect for freedom of expression and association. The third part outlines the many new criminal offences of financing and facilitating terrorism that have been added to Canada’s Criminal Code, as well as the increased punishment available for terrorism offences. The final part examines the enhanced investigative powers for terrorism and whether they will be used in a manner that involves discriminatory profiling that targets people because of their religion or race.

This article examines the issues to be considered in deciding whether an installment sales contract can be discharged for breach. It uses the above recent High Court case as a framework for discussion and suggests an alternative analysis of the facts of that case.

This paper traces the development of company law during the colonial era in British Malaya, providing details on the laws of the Straits Settlements and the Federated Malay States. It also presents an account of economic development and the use of the limited liability company form in these two interlinked jurisdictions. The paper notes the lack of connection between the evolution of company law in Malaya, local economic and political developments and the actual local use of the law. We situate this material within three current debates about the nature of colonial company law: whether the law was more a product of the "transplant effect" than of legal family; whether the dispersal of company law to the colonies was as straightforward as is often assumed; and whether the law was best characterised as "imperialism".