The position of a charterer under a time charterparty in respect of his obligation to give contractually valid orders as to the employment of the vessel have spawned numerous problems. Amongst these are the matters which pertain to orders relating to the employment of the vessel as the termination of the charter period approaches. This article discusses the position of the contracting parties in respect of such orders.

It is commonly assumed that the Court of Appeal rejected a doctrine of good faith in contract law_x000D_ in Ng Giap Hon v. Westcomb Securities Pte Ltd, and as a result there has been no serious debate in Singapore of the proper role, nature and function of good faith. This article explores the definitional, normative and methodological aspects of the debate, and argues for the introduction of a duty of good faith in Singapore contract law. The content of such a duty must nonetheless be fact-sensitive in order to preserve contractual autonomy and commercial certainty. A series of recent decisions is also examined to demonstrate the courts' support for such an approach.

This article examines the impact of law school and legal education on the moral and professional identities of law students through surveys and interviews of law students from the Class of 2010 at the National University of Singapore. Questions were asked to ascertain how students viewed the relationship between their personal convictions and professionalism, what they thought of lawyers and the work they would do as lawyers in future, student's opinions as to law's relationship with justice, morality and other social phenomena, and students' expectations of legal education. This article seeks to increase consciousness of how law school is remaking students and developing the moral and professional identities of future lawyers, and to facilitate conversation that reshapes legal_x000D_ education to achieve its aims.

This article gives a short outline on some aspects of the present status of Indonesian conflict of laws, and the extent to which the Dutch colonial regulations are still valid, or have been revised since independence. Following a general discussion on the basis for the validity of the old regulations and the present views on law revision, we shall examine some topics to illustrate the remaining influence of Dutch legal scholars on Indonesian case law and jurisprudence. We have chosen to focus on three areas in particular, the shift from the nationality to the domicile principle in the field of personal status, the problem of renvoi, and the law of contract.

In Singapore, no petition for divorce is permitted in the first three years of marriage unless leave of court is given on the basis that the case is one of exceptional hardship suffered by the petitioner or of exceptional depravity on the part of the respondent. This article examines the purpose of the three-year restriction on divorce and whether its retention in Singapore continues to promote the best interests of family members affected. It suggests that a shorter period of restriction, without exceptions, be adopted. A brief survey of the marriage relationship and the recent patterns of divorce in Singapore is also made here.

The term "incurred" plays a fundamental role in the operation of the deduction provision in section 14(1) of the Income Tax Act. However, its meaning has yet to be judicially examined in any depth by the Singaporean courts. There is however, a significant body of Australian Jurisprudence on the meaning of this expression. This article examines the Australian pronouncements on this concept and comments on their potential persuasive value in Singapore.

A few words of explanation at the outset are perhaps necessary – if nothing else than to explain the apparently cryptic title of this review essay. What in fact began as a somewhat straightforward review of a book on the history of marine insurance took a wholly unexpected turn and morphed into a general essay on the beauty, scholarship and function of legal history as viewed through the lenses of marine insurance. Indeed, in addition to being a magisterial two-volume history of the law of marine insurance, the present work demonstrates – in the most vividly possible way – at least three fundamental aspects (or, more accurately, benefits) of legal history as a whole.

This article examines the income tax treatment of a married couple who are living together. The law requires that the income of a wife to be aggregated to the income of her husband, upon which it is taxed as the income of one individual in the name of the husband. Although it is possible for the wife to opt for separate taxation, the default position is still based on income aggregation. This article examines the law, the possible reasons for it and its consequences. The continued use of the income aggregation principle is questioned, and an alternative approach is suggested.

Judicial case management is a delicate work of art. On one hand, it is said that justice hurried is justice buried. The courts must carefully adjudicate each case based on its merits to ensure that an accurate outcome would be realised. To this end, judges are often concerned with obtaining all available evidence before assessing each claim. Yet, on the other hand, it has been remarked that justice delayed is justice denied. As such, the courts are also mindful that cases must move along in a fairly expeditious manner. The prevailing attitude of both English and Singapore courts is therefore to balance the enforcement of procedural discipline with the imperative to judge a case on its substantive merits. This article argues that such a "balancing" approach is not the most appropriate philosophy to adopt. Instead, it proposes a "lexical priority" approach where procedural discipline occupies a prior position to substantive justice, preceding the latter by way of a precondition. It offers justifications for the "lexical priority" approach and exposes the shortcomings of the "balancing" approach by examining the English and Singapore jurisprudence on case management.

The right to confront one's accusers is granted widely by international and European human rights conventions, as well as by the US Constitution's 6th Amendment, though not recognised, at least explicitly, by Singapore law. This article argues for a non-instrumental view of that right, ie one not solely designed by reference to the hearsay rule, enlisting the remarkable trial of SirWalter Raleigh, in 1603, for treason to support the case, in principle, for such a view being taken. The article goes on to consider the confrontation right in three jurisdictions, namely the US, the European Court of Human Rights and England, where very different views of it have been taken. It then raises the possibility that some recent reforms to Singapore law entail confrontation issues. It concludes that, whatever else is done about the right to confrontation, it should, just like other human rights, be taken seriously.