Faculty Profile

• JSM, Stanford University, 2004
• MSc (Comparative Politics) (with Mark of Distinction), London School of Economics & Political Science, 1998
• LL.B. (Second Upper Honours), National University of Singapore, 1995
• Advocate and Solicitor (Singapore), 1996

Academic Positions Held

Current Appointment:

• Associate Professor of Law, Singapore Management University, Jul 2013-Present

Previous Appointments:

• Co-Director, Centre for Scholars' Development, Office of the Dean of Students, Jan 2012-Dec 2017
• Assistant Professor of Law, Singapore Management University, Jul 2005-Jun 2013
• Lecturer-in-Law, Singapore Management University, 2001-2005
• Senior Tutor, Department of Political Science, National University of Singapore, 1999–2001
• Research Associate, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1998-1999
• Foreign Service Officer, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Singapore, 1996-1997

Other Positions

• Nominated Member of Parliament, 12th Parliament, Parliament of Singapore, Feb 2012-Aug 2014
• Associate, Centre for International Law, National University of Singapore, 2010-Present
• Member, Tan Kah Kee Foundation Postgraduate Scholarship Selection Committee, 2006-present (2014 - Chairman)
• Chairman, Tan Ean Kiam Postgraduate Scholarship Committee, 2014-present
• Member, National Working Group on Social Responsibility [ISO 26000], SPRING Singapore, 2006-present
• Member, Professional Values Chapter of the Professional Affairs Committee, Singapore Academy of Law, 2011-present
• Member, Resource Panel, Chinese Newspapers Division, Singapore Press Holdings, 2011-present
• Member, National Council, National Youth Achievement Award, 2012-present
• Member, Management Committee, Singapore Compact for Corporate Social Responsibility, Singapore, 2012-present
• Member, Advisory Panel, National Youth Council Academy, 2010-2014
• Honorary Secretary, Centre for Non-Profit Leadership, 2009-2013
• Member, Judging Panel, Entrepreneur of the Year Award, Association of Small & Medium Enterprises (ASME) and Rotary International, 2011 & 2012
• Member, Taskforce for Principles for Responsible Business Education, UN Global Compact, 2007

Honours & Awards

Academic:

• Stanford Program in International Legal Studies Scholarship, Stanford Law School, USA, 2004-2005
• Solomon Asch Centre for Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict Summer Institute Fellowship, University of Pennsylvania, USA, 2005
• Stanford Centre on Conflict and Negotiation Graduate Student Fellowship, Stanford University, USA, 2005
• Fulbright Fellow, 2003-2004
• Fellow, Stanford Program in International Legal Studies, Stanford Law School, USA, 2003-2004
• Tan Kah Kee Foundation Postgraduate Scholarship, Tan Kah Kee Foundation, 2003-2004
• Robert McKenzie Memorial Prize, London School of Economics & Political Science, 1999
• Tun Dato Sir Cheng Lock Tan Scholarship, Tun Dato Sir Cheng Lock Tan Trust Fund and Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore, 1997-1998

Non-Academic:

• Meritorious Service Award (Kurnia Jasa Gemilang), The Singapore Scout Association, 1996
• Green Leaf Award (Youth), Ministry of the Environment, Singapore, 1994

Courses Taught in SMU

• Constitutional & Administrative Law (LLB/JD)
• Law and Policy of Ethnic Relations in Singapore (LLB/SocSci)
• Managing Ethical Dilemmas and Corporate Governance (MBA)
• Singapore Studies (SocSci)
• Ethics and Social Responsibility (University core curriculum course)
• Corporate Governance and Ethics (EMBA)

Research Areas / Areas of Specialisation

• Constitutional and Administrative Law
• Law, Society, and Public Policy
• Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility
• Corruption, Governance and Public Ethics
• Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict Regulation
• Government and Politics of Singapore

Current Projects

• Management of Ethnic Relations in Singapore
• ASEAN Charter
• Immigration, Citizenship, and Integration
• Religion and the Law
• Corporate Social Responsibility in Singapore

Selected Publications

• Halsbury’s Laws of Singapore — Constitutional Law, volume 6(3) (Singapore: LexisNexis, 2020), ISBN: 978-981-489-246-9. (with Kenny Chng and Benjamin Joshua Ong)
• ‘Commercial Judicial Review in Singapore: Strategic or Spontaneous?’ Singapore Journal of Legal Studies (September 2020), pp. 448-478.
• ‘Article 152 of the Singapore Constitution: The Past, Present, and Future of Multiracial Recognition, Inclusion, and Accommodation,’ in Zainul Abidin Rasheed, Wan Hussin Zoohri, and Norshahril Saat (eds.), Beyond Bicentennial: Perspectives on Malays (Singapore: World Scientific Publishing, 2020), pp. 713-726.
• ‘Massive Covid-19 Infections in Foreign Workers Dormitories: The Dog that Did Not Bark in Singapore’s Fight against the Covid-19 Pandemic,’ in Aurelio Gurrea-Martinez, Mark Findlay, and Goh Yihan (eds.), Law and COVID-19 (Singapore: School of Law, Singapore Management University, 2020), pp. 166-175.
• Corporate Social Responsibility in Asia, with Particular Reference to Southeast Asia: Untapped Potential, New Approaches, and Opportunities for Humanistic Enterprise,’ in Rae Lindsay & Roger Martella (eds.), Corporate Social Responsibility – Sustainable Business: Environmental, Social and Governance Frameworks for the 21st Century (The Hague: Kluwer Law International, 2020), pp. 693-724 (co-authored with Thomas Thomas).
• ‘Squaring the Circle: The President as a Symbol of Multiracialism and National Unity,’ and ‘‘Perfecting Singapore’s System of Political Governance: Privileging Elites in the Quest for Good Governance,’ in Jaclyn L. Neo and Swati Jhaveri (eds.), Constitutional Change in Singapore: Reforming the Elected President (London and New York: Routledge, 2019), pp. 148-177 and pp. 88-121.
• ‘“The Notion of Subjective or Unfettered Discretion is Contrary to the Rule of Law”: Judicial Review of Administrative Action in Singapore,’ in Guobin Zhu (ed.), Deference to the Administration in Judicial Review: Comparative Perspectives (Ius Comparatum - Global Studies in Comparative Law series, vol. no. 39) (Springer, 2019), pp. 379-404.
• ‘The Imperative of Integrative Pluralist Constitutionalism: Going Beyond Formal Equality, Eschewing Rights, and Accommodation of Differences in Singapore,’ in Jaclyn L. Neo and Bui Ngoc Son (eds.), Pluralist Constitutions in Southeast Asia(Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2019), pp. 51-82.
• ‘Soft Law and the Development of Norms and Trust in Countering the Terrorist Threat: Engaging the Faith Communities in Post-9/11 Singapore,’ Journal of Church & State, vol. 59, no. 2 (2017), pp. 226-255.
• ‘Much Ado About Nothing: The Enigma of Engagement of Foreign Constitutional Law in Singapore,’ in Jaclyn L. Neo (ed.), Constitutional Interpretation in Singapore: Theory and Practice(London and New York: Routledge, 2017), pp. 289-317.
• ‘Singapore,’ in Kent Roach (ed.), Comparative Counter-Terrorism Law(New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015), pp. 610-649.
• ‘Angst, Anxieties, and Anger in a Global City: Coping with and Rightsizing the Immigration Imperative in Singapore,’ in Norman Vasu, Yeap Su Yin, and Chan Wen Ling (eds.), Immigration in Singapore (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2014), pp. 37-66.
• ‘Autochthonous Constitutional Design in Post-Colonial Singapore: Intimations of Confucianism and the Leviathan in Entrenching Dominant Government,’ Yonsei Law Journal, vol. 4, no. 2 (2013), pp. 273-308.
• ‘“We” v. “I”: Communitarian Legalism in Singapore,’ in Christoph Antons and Roman Tomasic (eds.), Law and Society in East Asia(Surrey: Ashgate, 2013), pp. 541-569.
• ‘Reflections on Learning Languages in Singapore,’ in Lee Kuan Yew, My Lifelong Challenge: Singapore's Bilingual Journey (Singapore: Straits Times Press, 2012), pp. 335-339.[Also published in Chinese: 李光耀,《我一生的挑战: 新加坡双语之路》(新加坡: 联合早报,2012), pp. 333-336.]
• ‘Managing Female Foreign Domestic Workers in Singapore: Economic Pragmatism, Coercive Legal Regulation, or Human Rights?’ Israel Law Review, vol. 43, no. 1 (2010), pp. 99-125.
• ‘The Evolving Social Compact and the Transformation of Singapore: Going Beyond Quid Pro Quo in Governance,’ in Terence Chong (ed.), Management of Success: Singapore Revisited (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2010), pp. 80-99.
• ‘From Clampdown to Limited Empowerment: Hard and Soft Law in the Calibration and Regulation of Religious Conduct in Singapore,’ Law and Policy, vol. 31, no. 3 (July 2009), pp. 351-379.
• ‘A Union of Gender Equality and Pragmatic Patriarchy: International Marriages and Citizenship Laws in Singapore,’ Citizenship Studies,vol. 12, no.1 (February 2008), pp. 73-89.
• ‘Keeping God in Place: The Management of Religion in Singapore,’ in Lai Ah Eng (ed.), Religious Diversity in Singapore(Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies and the Institute of Policy Studies, National University of Singapore, 2008), pp. 55-82.
• ‘Norming Moderation in an “Iconic Target”: Public Policy and the Regulation of Religious Anxieties in Singapore,’ Terrorism and Political Violence, vol. 19, no. 4 (December 2007), pp. 443-462.
• ‘“We, the Citizens of Singapore...”: Multiethnicity, its Evolution and its Aberrations,’ in Lai Ah Eng (ed.), Beyond Rituals and Riots: Ethnic Relations and Social Cohesion in Singapore (Singapore: Eastern Universities Press, 2004), pp. 65-97.
• ‘Re-engaging Chineseness: Political, Economic and Cultural Imperatives of Nation-Building in Singapore,’ The China Quarterly, vol. 175 (September 2003), pp. 751-774.
• ‘From Sojourners to Citizens: Managing the Ethnic Chinese Minority in Indonesia and Malaysia,’ Ethnic and Racial Studies, vol. 24, no. 6 (November 2001), pp. 949-978.
• ‘Law and Values in Governance: The Singapore Way,’ Hong Kong Law Journal, vol. 30, no. 1 (2000), pp. 91-119.