Dr. Jack Tsen-Ta Lee is a Singaporean law academic. He has research interests in constitutional and administrative law, heritage law, and media law.
Lee graduated from the National University of Singapore in 1995 and qualified as an advocate and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Singapore the following year. After practising for about six years as a litigator with a Singapore law firm, he took up postgraduate studies at University College London on a British Chevening Scholarship and was conferred an LL.M. in 2003.
He then returned to Singapore and worked as an Assistant Director for the Singapore Academy of Law, a promotion and development agency for Singapore’s legal industry. Subsequently, he embarked on Ph.D. studies on a fully funded teaching assistantship at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom, and successfully defended his thesis on the interpretation and construction of bills of rights in January 2012.
He was an Assistant Professor of Law with the School of Law, Singapore Management University, from 2008 to 2017, during which he held a 2009–2010 Lee Foundation Fellowship for Research Excellence, and received the School of Law’s Most Promising Teacher Award 2010–2011. He served on the Law Society of Singapore’s Public and International Law Committee between 2012 and 2013. He rejoined the Singapore Academy of Law as its Deputy Research Director supporting the Law Reform Committee from August 2017 to December 2019.
He is a member of the National Collection Advisory Panel of the National Heritage Board from 2013 to 2017; has been an expert member of the International Committee on Legal, Administrative and Financial Issues (ICLAFI) of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), since 2016; and was elected the President of the Singapore Heritage Society on 9 September 2017.
Employment[]
- Singapore Academy of Law, Deputy Research Director (Law Reform Committee), 1 August 2017 to 31 December 2019
- Singapore Management University School of Law, Assistant Professor of Law (School of Law), 1 November 2008 to 30 June 2017
- University of Birmingham, Visiting Lecturer; Postgraduate Teaching Assistant (Birmingham Law School), 2005 to 2008
- Singapore Academy of Law, Assistant Director (Publications), 2003 to 2005
- Chor Pee & Company; Chor Pee & Partners, Legal Associate; Litigation Partner (Litigation Department), 1996 to 2002
Education and qualifications[]
- Supreme Court of England and Wales, Solicitor, 2001-10-01 to present
- Supreme Court of Singapore, Advocate and Solicitor, 1996-05-25 to present
- University of Birmingham, Ph.D. in Law (Birmingham Law School), 2012
- University College London, LL.M. (Faculty of Laws), 2002 to 2003
- National University of Singapore, LL.B. (Hons) (Faculty of Law), 1991 to 1995
Invited positions and distinctions[]
- Urban Redevelopment Authority, Member (Heritage and Identity Panel), 2018-08-01 to present
- International Council on Monuments and Sites, Charenton-le-Pont, France, Expert Member (International Scientific Committee on Legal, Administrative and Financial Issues (ICLAFI)), 2016-04 to present
- Singapore Management University, Most Promising Teacher Award (School of Law), 2010
- Lee Foundation, Fellowship for Research Excellence, 2009
- National Heritage Board, Member (Archaeology Advisory Panel), 2019-08-19 to 2021-12-31
- National Heritage Board, Member (National Collection Advisory Panel), 2013-09-01 to 2021-12-31
- National Heritage Board, Member (Nomination Committee for Hawker Culture), 2018-08-31 to 2021-02-28
Membership and service[]
- Singapore Heritage Society, President, 2017-09-09
- International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), 2016-04 to present
- Singapore Academy of Law, 1996-05 to present
Publications[]
- Topical Storm Approaching, European Yearbook of Constitutional Law 2020: The City in Constitutional Law, 2021-03-28 (book-chapter).
- Report on Civil Liability for Misuse of Private InformationLaw Reform Committee, Singapore Academy of Law, 2020-12 (report).
- Singapore 2019 Global Review of Constitutional Law, 2020-11-26 (book-chapter).
- A Place to Stand to Move the EarthSingapore Journal of Legal Studies, 2020-09 (journal-article).
- Sense of Place, Journal of Comparative Urban Law and Policy, 2020-08 (journal-article).
- From Eligibility to Election, Constitutional Change in Singapore: Reforming the Elected Presidency, 2019-12-09 (book-chapter).
- Singapore 2018 Global Review of Constitutional Law, 2019 (book-chapter).*
- Sense of Place, 12 October 2016 (conference-paper).
- Singapore’s Elected President, Presidential Power, 20 July 2016 (online-resource).
- The Limits of Liberty: The Crime of Male Same-Sex Conduct and the Rights to Life and Personal Liberty in Singapore, Hong Kong Law Journal, 2016-05 (journal-article).
- Submission on Specific Aspects of the Elected Presidency, 21 March 2016 (other).
- Constraint or Restraint?, 2016 (book-chapter).
- Rethinking the Presumption of Constitutionality, 2016 (book-chapter).
- We Built This City, Asian Journal of Comparative Law, 18 December 2015 (journal-article).
- Magna Carta Then and Now, Today, 19 November 2015 (newspaper-article).
- Equality and Singapore’s First Constitutional Challenges to the Criminalization of Male Homosexual Conduct, Asia-Pacific Journal on Human Rights and the Law, October 2015 (journal-article).
- Foreign Precedents in Constitutional Adjudication by the Supreme Court of Singapore, 1963–2013, Washington International Law Journal, April 2015 (journal-article).
- Protecting Human Rights, 4 December 2014 (lecture-speech).
- According to the Spirit and not to the Letter, Vienna Journal on International Constitutional Law, 2014 (journal-article).
- A Presence of the Past, International Journal of Cultural Property, December 2013 (journal-article).
- Hougang By-election Case, Today, 6 August 2013 (newspaper-article).
- Shall the Twain Never Meet?Singapore Journal of Legal Studies, December 2012 (journal-article).
- Proportionality in Interpreting Constitutional Rights, 19 July 2012 (working-paper).
- An Articulate Silence, 2012 (dissertation-thesis).
- Let Presidential Hopefuls Have Their Say, The Straits Times, 13 August 2011 (newspaper-article).
- Teaching Law in the University – Shaping Future Generations, The Practice of Law, 2011 (book-chapter).
- The Mandatory Death Penalty and a Sparsely Worded Constitution, Law Quarterly Review, 2011 (journal-article).
- The Text through Time, Statute Law Review, 2010 (journal-article).
- Interpreting Bills of Rights, International Journal of Constitutional Law, 2007 (journal-article).
- Treaties, Time Limits and Treasure TroveArt, Antiquity and Law, 2004 (journal-article).
- Workplace Sexual Harassment in Singapore, Singapore Academy of Law Journal, 1999 (journal-article).
- Medical Investigation of Suspects by the Police, Singapore Law Review, 1996 (journal-article).
- Equal Protection and Sexual Orientation, Singapore Law Review, 1995 (journal-article)[1].
- Rediscovering the Constitution, Singapore Law Review, 1995 (journal-article).
- Separability, Competence-Competence and the Arbitrator's Jurisdiction in Singapore, Singapore Academy of Law Journal, 1995 (journal-article).
- A Place for the Privileged Will, Singapore Law Review, 1994 (journal-article).
- Case Note: The Court of Appeal's Lack of Jurisdiction to Reopen Appeals, Singapore Journal of Legal Studies, 1994 (journal-article).
See also[]
References[]
Acknowledgements[]
This article was written by Roy Tan.