As noted (at p. vii) by the contributors to this book, the Indian Penal Code 1860 (Central Act 45 of 1860) ("IPC"), largely the work of Thomas Macaulay, "was the first codification of criminal law in the British Empire and is the longest serving code in the common law world". Upon its enactment, the influential IPC was adopted in various British colonies, such as Singapore. The continuing use of legislation of such pedigree, however, brings about several problems. Any legislative inertia to update the statute from time to time will put the judiciary in a dilemma, whenever the latter is asked to either resolve newfound ambiguities and loopholes in the pro-visions, or interpret provisions in the context of evolving social norms. Lacking a democratic mandate, different judges will also have different conceptions of how much judicial activism can and should be accommodated.

With the growing number of economies opening up to the world in the last few decades, it has become increasingly common for lawyers to be engaged in transactions involving elements from more than one country. No matter how complex a deal may be, the crux of the matter at the end of the day is whether the rights of the parties can be satisfactorily enforced. For cross-border commercial disputes, this question often depends on the forum in which they are resolved than on the substantive law governing the transactions. It is therefore essential for lawyers to have a good grasp of the issues involved in international commercial litigation in order to appropriately advise their clients of the legal risks involved in their transnational transactions. However, it is difficult to find in the market a readable and erudite book on a subject largely governed by procedural rules and commercial considerations. Nonetheless, Richard Fentiman has shown that it is possible to produce a scholarly work which is not only of a high quality, but at the same time palatable to practitioners.

Professor Poh Chu Chai has continued to rationalize his books on the law of insurance into discrete logical areas - the previous edition of this work would have been familiar to readers as the sixth edition of Law of Life, Motor and Workmen's Compensation Insurance (Singapore: LexisNexis, 2002). The current edition comprises the compulsory insurance aspects of the previous edition. That said, this work still adheres to the hallmarks of Professor Poh's work in this area: there is much breadth and depth in its treatment of the relevant principles and case law.

The Law of Torts in Singapore is the first local torts textbook in Singapore. It is published under Academy Publishing's "Law Practice Series", which aims to build up a library of textbooks on important aspects of Singapore law. The present book is a prominent addition to that series. The book is divided into twenty chapters, with seventeen chapters written by Gary Chan Kok Yew, the book's stated author. Lee Pey Woan contributed two other chapters, and co-wrote one other chapter with the author. These twenty chapters cover the major torts, with an understandable concentration on the tort of negligence. Apart from negligence, the other chapters also cover intentional torts to the person, breach of statutory duty, interference with land, occupiers' liability, interference with goods, defamation, false representations, the economic torts, protection of privacy and malicious prosecution/misfeasance of public office. There are further chapters that deal with more "general" aspects of the law of torts, such as an introductory chapter discussing (in a more theoretical vein) the aims of the law of torts, as well as more doctrinal chapters discussing the various possible parties in a tort action, vicarious liability, and remedies. This is a comprehensive spread of coverage that is similar to other contemporary textbooks of this nature (see e.g., Carolyn Sappideen & Prue Vines, eds., Fleming's The Law of Torts, 10th ed. (Sydney: Lawbook Co., 2011). In the preface, the author states that the book's aim is "to provide a synthesis of the law of torts in Singapore by bringing together … a discussion of Singapore court decisions and statutes as well as reviews and commentaries on these developments, and by tapping on the deep reservoir of English and Commonwealth precedents" (at p. ix). As we shall soon see, the book more than meets this broadly stated aim.