Court of Appeal of Singapore - History

History

The Court of Appeal is Singapore's highest court, and thus its court of final appeal. Its earliest predecessor was the Supreme Court of the Straits Settlements which, following legal changes introduced in 1873, had jurisdiction to sit as a Full Court of Appeal with not less than three judges and as a Divisional Court at each settlement. However, the Court of Appeal of the Straits Settlements was not the highest appellate court of the colony. From 1826, when Singapore's first court – the Court of Judicature of Prince of Wales' Island, Singapore, and Malacca – was established, appeals lay to the King-in-Council. Such appeals were taken over by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council from 1844. A party wishing to appeal had to petition the Judicial Committee for leave (permission) to do so. In 1934, a separate Court of Criminal Appeal was established in the Straits Settlements.

All courts ceased to function during World War II when the Japanese occupation of Singapore began in February 1942. Though the Japanese military authorities created a court of appeal, it did not hear any cases. Following the end of the occupation in 1945, all pre-war courts were revived. There was no change in the judicial system when the Straits Settlements were dissolved in 1946 and Singapore became a crown colony in its own right, except that the Supreme Court of the Straits Settlements became known as the Supreme Court of Singapore.

Singapore ceased to be part of the British Empire in 1963 when it joined the Federation of Malaysia. In 1964, the Supreme Court of the Colony of Singapore was replaced by the High Court of Malaysia in Singapore, appeals from which lay to the Federal Court of Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur. The Privy Council remained the final appellate court, although appellants now submitted their petitions to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong (head of state of Malaysia) who sent them on to the Judicial Committee. In turn, the Judicial Committee conveyed their recommendations on appeals to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, who then made the final orders. Singapore left the Federation in 1965. At the time of the nation's full independence, no changes were made to the judicial system. It was only with effect from 9 January 1970 that the Supreme Court of the Republic of Singapore consisting of the Court of Appeal and High Court was established. The Judicial Committee Act 1966 was passed to enable the Privy Council to continue its role as Singapore's final court of appeal, and to remove the need to petition the British monarch or the Yang di-Pertuan Agong in order to appeal.

In 1985, 21 out of 142 appeals heard by the Privy Council originated from Singapore. Moves towards full legal autochthony from Britain began in 1989, when appeals to the Privy Council were limited in the wake of a 1988 Privy Council ruling reversing the Court of Appeal's decision to strike opposition politician J.B. Jeyaretnam off the roll of advocates and solicitors for having been convicted of cheque fraud and making a false declaration concerning the accounts of the Workers' Party of Singapore. The Privy Council judged Jeyaretnam to have been the victim of a "grievous injustice" in Singapore's courts, having been "fined, imprisoned and publicly disgraced for offences of which were not guilty". Under the new rules, in civil cases to appeal to the Privy Council all parties to the proceedings had to consent, while in criminal cases appeals could only be brought in death penalty cases when the Court of Criminal Appeal's decision had not been unanimous. Subsequently, with effect from 8 April 1994, all remaining appeals to the Privy Council were abolished. The Court of Criminal Appeal was done away with, and a single permanent Court of Appeal exercising both civil and criminal appellate jurisdiction was instituted with the Chief Justice sitting as the President of the Court together with Judges of Appeal, who rank above ordinary judges of the High Court.