‘How may the definitions of culpable homicide and murder in the Penal Code be reformed or improved?’ - this was the topic of the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) Law Reform Essay Competition 2013. Students from the two local law schools were invited to submit an essay either individually or in teams of two on the topic.
The competition served to raise awareness of law reform work in Singapore among students, particularly the work of the Legislation and Law Reform Division of AGC; as well as to nurture an interest in law reform work.
Fourth-year SMU law student Dierdre Grace Morgan sent in an individual submission with her suggestion that homicide could be viewed as involving different wrongs, instead of different degrees of the same wrong. It won her the first prize, including $1,500 and a four-week internship with the AGC's Legislation and Law Reform Division.
Dierdre, who also took part in last year’s competition, said that the experience had taught her a lot about an ‘unfamiliar’ area of law. "Law reform is interesting because it's about how the law affects society, and how gaps in the rules can be plugged to better fulfill policy objectives," she said.
The second prize went to a team submission by Makoto Hong Cheng (third-year, SMU) and Kok Jia An, Alwyn (NUS), and the third prize went to a team submission by two SMU law graduates, Chin Wan Yew Rachel and Muk Chen Yeen Jonathan.
Rachel and Jonathan’s suggestion was to rename the concept of culpable homicide and tweak its relationship with the idea of murder. "It is quite different to think about law reform than studying cases in class... law reform is about what the law should be, rather than what it is," she said.
In another competition – the LexisNexis Rule of Law Essay Competition 2013, fourth-year law student Siraj Shaik Aziz, also did SMU proud by emerging as the runner-up with his essay entitled “From Aversion to Acceptance: Evolution of the ASEAN Human Rights Agenda”.
The LexisNexis Rule of Law Essay Competition was organised on the occasion of the 95th Birth Anniversary of Chief Justice Claudio Teehankee by the Chief Justice Claudio Teehankee Center for the Rule of Law (Ateneo Law School) in the Philippines, in partnership with LexisNexis.
The competition drew entries from law schools across ASEAN on the theme of ‘The Evolution of an ASEAN Rule of Law for Human Rights’. Siraj’s entry can be found here.
[Featured Photo: (Left to right) Final-year law students, Siraj Shaik Aziz and Dierdre Grace Morgan, whose essay submissions stood out in the LexisNexis Rule of Law Essay Competition 2013 and AGC Law Reform Essay Competition 2013 respectively.]