LawNet, a service of the Singapore Academy of Law, is a one-stop practice portal providing a complete suite of legal and research information as well as transactional solutions for the Singapore and global legal community.

Since its inception in 1990, www.lawnet.com.sg has grown by leaps and bounds, adding information, applications and databases to suit the evolving needs of legal practitioners, corporate counsel, paralegals, law academics and law students.

LawNet is primarily a subscription-based website made up of different modules. Each module has different pricing schemes and may be subscribed to separately.

Legal Research module[]

The Legal Research module is an integrated online environment that allows users to search different types of legal content and multiple sources at a single go.

Cases[]

Singapore Case Law[]

The following resources are available:

The Singapore Law Reports from 2010
The Singapore Law Reports (Reissue) from 1965 to 2009
Judgments of the Supreme Court of Singapore (from 1991) and State Courts of Singapore (from 2001)
The Malayan Law Journal from 1932
The Heritage Law Reports 1808–1980
Decisions Of Singapore Tribunals, Boards And Committees
Malaysia Case Law
Malayan Law Journal from 1932
English Case Law

From the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting for England and Wales[]

The Law Reports from 1865
The Weekly Law Reports from 1953
The Business Law Reports from 2006
Indian Case Law
Supreme Court Cases from 1969
Legislation, Rules and Notices

Singapore Versioned Legislation[]

Versioned legislation database comprising all versions of legislation from 1 January 1997 from the Attorney-General's Chambers.
Notices & Directions
Court Practice Manuals for Civil Procedure
Registrar's Circulars
Practice Directions from Supreme Court and State Courts
State Courts Practice Pamphlets
Reference Materials

A stable of secondary legal materials is available, including Singapore and Malaysia's leading academic legal journals, legal updates from leading Singapore and Malaysian law firms, and a variety of textbooks.

Journals[]

Asia Business Law Review
Asian Journal on Mediation
Malayan Law Review
Malaysian Bar Journal (INSAF)
Singapore Academy of Law Annual Review
Singapore Academy of Law Journal
Singapore Journal of International & Comparative Law
Singapore Journal of Legal Studies
Singapore Law Review

Books[]

Articles on Singapore Law
The Cedric Barclay Lectures
Court Practice Manuals for Civil Procedure
Evidence in Criminal Trials
International Conference on Electronic Litigation
Sentencing Practice in the State Courts
Academy Publishing Titles
Law Practice Series (LPS)
A Treatise on Singapore Constitutional Law (2012)
Competition Law and Policy in Singapore (2009)
Competition Law and Policy in Singapore, 2nd ed (2015)
Corporate Governance – Practice and Issues (2010)
Corporate Law (2015)
Ethics and Professional Responsibility – A Code for the Advocate and Solicitor (2007)
Intellectual Property Law of Singapore (2013)
Legal Profession (Professional Conduct) Rules 2015 – A Commentary (2016)
Modern Advocacy – Perspectives from Singapore (2008)
Personal Property Law (2014)
Principles of Civil Procedure (2013)
Sentencing Principles in Singapore (2009)
The Criminal Procedure Code of Singapore – Annotations and Commentary (2012)
The Law of Agency (2010)
The Law of Contract in Singapore (2012)
The Law of Torts in Singapore (2011)
The Law of Torts in Singapore (2nd Edition) (2016)
Monograph Series (MS)
An Asian Perspective on Mediation (2009)
Confidentiality in Arbitration – How Far Does It Extend? (2007)
Coroner's Practice in Medical Cases (2008)
Criminal Law for the 21st Century – A Model Code for Singapore (2013)
Data Protection Law in Singapore – Privacy and Sovereignty in an Interconnected World (2014)
Employment Law in Singapore – Cases and Materials (2016)
Industrial Design Law in Singapore (2012)
International Issues in Family Law in Singapore (2015)
Juvenile Justice – Where Rehabilitation Takes Centre Stage (2014)
Law of Sales in Singapore (2017)
Singapore Law — 50 Years in the Making (2015)
Singapore Law on Arbitral Awards (2011)
The Law on Corruption in Singapore – Cases and Materials (2007)
Tort of Defamation Before the Singapore Courts 1965-2015: A Comparative and Empirical Study (2017)

Other Titles[]

Core Values of an Effective Judiciary (2015)
Rule of Law Symposium 2014: The Importance of the Rule of Law in Promoting Development (2015)
SAL Conference 2011 — Developments in Singapore Law Between 2006 and 2010 — Trends and Perspectives (2011)
Singapore Syariah Appeals Reports (1980-2010)
Singapore Syariah Appeals Reports (2011-2015)

Commentaries[]

Commentaries from the Law Society, Singapore and foreign law firms. Full list:[1].

Papers & Reports[]

Conference papers and reports from various working groups and committees:

ASEAN Law Association General Assembly (Workshop Papers) from 2003
The Impact of the Regulatory Framework on E-Commerce in Singapore (April 2002)
Computer Output as Evidence – Consultation Paper (2003)
Computer Output as Evidence – Final Paper (2004)
Singapore Academy of Law Conference 2006: Developments in Singapore Law between 2001 and 2005
International Congress of Maritime Arbitrators XVI Congress Papers, Singapore (2007)
Report of the Constitutional Commission Singapore (1954 and 1966)
Report of the Law Reform Committee of the Singapore Academy of Law from 1994

Press Articles[]

Selected law-related articles from the Singapore press
TODAY from 2003

Singapore Parliament Reports[]

The Parliament of Singapore provides the following parliamentary material from the Legislative Assembly of the Colony in 1955, the State of Singapore, and the present Parliament of Singapore:

full-text of the official reports of Parliamentary debates (commonly known as Hansard)
Select Committee reports

AustLII[]

This content is provided free by AustLII and is available for searching and accessing directly within the Legal Research module of LawNet. AustLII's vast online databases include cases, legislation and selected secondary materials from all the Australian jurisdictions as well as New Zealand.

HKLII[]

The content is provided free by Hong Kong Legal Information Institute (HKLII) and is directly searchable within the Legal Research module of LawNet. HKLII extensive legal resources include judgments and tribunal decisions, ordinances and regulations including a comprehensive collection of law reform treatise.

Others[]

Precedents - includes precedents for guarantee agreements, debentures, asset purchase and sale amongst others.

Civil Practice module[]

Litigation References[]

This is a Premium add-on service available only to Singapore subscribers of the LawNet Basic Subscription package. Subscribers to Litigation References can access the following databases from the Supreme Court. Details of each database are below.

Taxation[]

The Taxation sub-module comprises summaries of taxed bills of costs and PDF documents of the bills of costs filed by parties to the proceedings in Supreme Court cases filed from 2002 onwards.

Pleadings[]

The Pleadings sub-module comprises selected Supreme Court pleadings from cases reported in the Singapore Law Reports from 2014 onwards. The database includes pleadings from writ actions (including appeals to the Court of Appeal) and admiralty suits, but excludes all further and better particulars.

Electronic Litigation[]

The Integrated Electronic Litigation System (eLitigation) was implemented in 2013 and is the Singapore Judiciary's enhanced version of the Electronic Filing System (EFS). eLitigation provides both law firms and court users with an integrated platform for the filing and service of court documents and active management of case files throughout the litigation process. In addition, eLitigation also allows access to cause book searches and inspection of case files.

Criminal Practice module[]

Sentencing Information & Research Repository (SIR)[]

Provided by the State Courts of Singapore, this repository of sentencing outcomes and factors contains sentencing information of State Court criminal cases from 2011. The service provides tools that allow users to perform targeted searches by charges or by cases and to use various filters to refine their searches. Users may extract the results from SIR for the purpose of analysing the types of sentences imposed, the sentencing ranges, and for other forms of statistical analysis. The SIR website is best viewed using IE7.0 & above.

Criminal Law Digest[]

The Criminal Law Digest features jurisprudential case commentaries and case digests on key developments in criminal sentencing or criminal law in general. Curated by an esteemed editorial team, it explains the courts' reasoning in an accessible and easy-to-read manner. The Digest is a collaborative project between the Criminal Practice Committee, Law Society of Singapore and the Singapore Academy of Law.

Conveyancing module[]

Integrated Legal Requisition System (InteReq)[]

InteReq, accessible at www.starsinfo.com.sg, makes the conveyancing process more efficient by allowing law firms to prepare and send legal requisitions to multiple government agencies. Replies to legal requisitions applications are received electronically, providing greater cost savings and convenience.

Legal Requisitions can be sent to any of the following government ministries and statutory boards through InteReq:

Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore
Land Transport Authority - Rapid Transit System
Land Transport Authority - Street Works
National Environment Agency - Environmental Health Department
National Environment Agency - Pollution Control Department
Public Utilities Board - Sewerage Department
Building and Construction Authority
Urban Redevelopment Authority
Public Search Service - Integrated Land Information Service (PSS-INLIS). PSS-INLIS, accessible at www.starsinfo.com.sg, provides access to a portfolio of comprehensive information relating to property. With this strategic access to property information online, you may search for the following:
Land Register (Property, Owners and Encumbrances)
Strata Title Plan
Lot Base System
Caveat Index
Instruments & Caveats (Registered & Pending)
Historical Information
Imaged Documents and Deeds (Private & HDB)

Other services[]

In 2017, the Singapore Academy of Law launched the Legal Technology Vision. It is a five-year roadmap to help the legal industry leverage technology to enhance their practice. It is also a call to action for legal technology providers to engage in public-private collaboration for the building of a legal tech ecosystem, and to create new legal technology solutions and services.

To explore collaboration opportunities with the Singapore Academy of Law and LawNet, please email them at legaltechvision@sal.org.sg (Attn: Programme Manager)

LawNet Reading List Downloader ("LRLD")[]

The LawNet Reading List Downloader ("LRLD") is a tool made for the students of the Singapore Management University ("SMU"), which imports reading lists in Word, PDF, or TXT format and uses regular expressions to extract case citations. Using the retrieved citations, it searches for and downloads the cases that are available from LawNet into a user-selected download directory.

The LRLD is distributed under the GNU General Public License Terms and is maintained by the Singapore Management University's Legal Innovation and Technology ("LIT") Co-curricular Activity group.

The cases and materials downloaded using the LRLD come from the Singapore Academy of Law's ("SAL") LawNet services and are subject to SAL's LawNet Terms and Conditions.

The LRLD is currently only available to local university students with a valid student account and credentials, and subject to approval as may be required by the respective schools.

The LRLD may be downloaded and installed here.

myLawyer[]

myLawyer is an online service to introduce clients to lawyers in Singapore. It is a portal where Singapore lawyers can present their skills to the world, and where the world, can find the Singapore lawyer they need. myLawyer uses sophisticated marketing techniques to bring individual and business clients to our website. Clients search for and browse profiles of lawyers on the website; they can either call the myLawyer call centre and explain their problem, or identify the lawyer or lawyers they think are best qualified to solve their legal problem from the website directly. For the lawyers, myLawyer is also a service designed for lawyers that makes it easy to collaborate and connect with their colleagues and clients. SAL members may sign up with myLawyer at https://www.mylawyernetwork.com using their LegalOne credentials.

CaseList downloader[]

Caselist automates the downloading of cited cases by scanning files and documents for case citations which reference cases in supported databases. Users will then be able to select which of those cases they wish to download. When the download button is selected, it downloads all of the selected cases into the users' hard drive in a format of their choice, saving precious time which would otherwise be needed to download each of those cases manually. Caselist is current in FREE BETA, and is ad-supported. For more information and installation instructions, click here[2].

Milestones[]

1990[]

Singapore Statutes Database

1992-1995[]

Subsidiary Legislation Database and case law database People Profile
Information and Bankruptcy Search System Litigation databases

1996[]

Singapore Titles Automated Registration System (STARS) Public Search
System Integrated Legal Requisition System (InteReq)

1997[]

Launch of Electronic Filing System
Start of LawNet Training Centre (LTC)

1998[]

Launch of Legal WorkBench Module

1999[]

Full implementation of Electronic Filing System (EFS)

2001[]

Web-based EFS

2002[]

Revamp and updates of Singapore treaties database and Versioned Legislation
Database (VLDB).

2003[]

Launch of Legal Prospector 2

2004[]

New Singapore Parliamentary Reports System (SPRS)

2007[]

Launch of LawNet Portal
English Case law from Incorporated Council of Law Reporting
Launch of Legal Workbench in Malaysia

2008[]

Launch of Practitioners' Toolkit (PTK)

2009[]

Launch of Public Search Service - Integrated Land Information Service(PSS-INLIS)
Launch of SCC Online-LawNet link-up
Launch of LawNet access to AustLII content

2010[]

Launch of LawNet access to HKLII content
Launch of new LawNet Logo

2011[]

Launch of new LawNet user interface
Launch of LawNet iPad Application
VLDB enhanced (New improved search capabilities)
Integration of new Singapore Parliamentary Reports System
Launch of JustCite-LawNet link-up

2013[]

Launch of eLitigation
Launch of Cause Book Search in eLitigation / Decommissioning of Due Diligence service

2015[]

Launch of New LawNet portal
Launch of Premium add-ons:
- Academy Publishing titles
- Sentencing Information & Research Repository (SIR)
- JustCite
- SPH Newslink
- Singapore Syariah Appeals Reports

2017[]

Launch of Premium add-ons:
- CLJ Law

References[]

The LawNet.sg website:[3].

LawNet