REVISED EDITION OF THE LAWS BILL

Order for Second Reading read.

4.55 p.m.

Mr Yong Nyuk Lin (for the Minister for Law and National Development): Mr Speaker, Sir, I beg to move, "That the Bill be now read a Second time."

Hon. Members are doubtless aware that the present Edition of the Laws of Singapore was published more than ten years ago, and that during this period far-reaching constitutional changes have taken place, ending with the separation of Singapore from Malaysia in August last year.

Even had this last event not occurred with the attendant modifications in the law occasioned thereby, it would have been nonetheless necessary to bring out a Revised Edition of the Laws as soon as possible. But this factor, taken in conjunction with the fact that we have had numerous amending Ordinances since the last Edition of the Laws was published a decade ago which need to be fused into their respective principal Ordinances, makes the preparation and publication of a Revised Edition of the Laws a matter of some urgency if we are to have a handy manual of laws consolidated, modified, amended, and brought up to date so that "looking up the law" is not the frustrating, tiresome and often difficult process that it now is.

Since the earliest days when Singapore was part of the Straits Settlements, there have been six consolidations or revisions of the laws affecting Singapore:

(i) First was published a revision in two volumes of the Acts and Ordinances of the Legislative Council of the Straits Settlements from 1st April, 1867, to 1st June, 1886.

(ii) The second revision embraced the Acts and Ordinances of the Legislative Council of the Straits Settlements from 1st April, 1867, to 7th March, 1898.

(iii) Next was the Revision of 1920; this Revision which was prepared under the Law Revision Ordinance, 1910, was published in 1920 and contained the Ordinances amended up to 31st December, 1919.

(iv) The succeeding Edition of the Laws of the Straits Settlements was published in 1926 and contained the laws in force on 31st December, 1925.

(v) The 1936 Edition which followed was prepared under the authority of the Revised Edition of the Laws Ordinance, 1935, and contained the Ordinances amended to 31st December, 1935.

(vi) Finally, we have the present 1955 Edition of the Laws in eight volumes with Annual Supplements for the years 1956 to 1962.

This, then, was the position with regard to legislation in Singapore immediately before Malaysia Day, at which time the law could be ascertained with the exercise of reasonable diligence. However, consequent partly on the multitudinous Modification Orders issued principally in Kuala Lumpur during the period Singapore was part of Malaysia, and partly because of the various amending Ordinances that have been enacted in Singapore over the last ten years, our laws are not as readily ascertainable as we would like them to be, and it is therefore my hope that the Attorney-General's Chambers and the Ministry of Law will make it possible to render the perusal of any part of our Statute Book a painless one.

The House will recall that section 13 of the Republic of Singapore Independence Act, 1965, provides, inter alia, that the President may, by order made at any time during the period of three years after the Act comes into force, make such modifications in any written law as appear to be necessary or expedient as a result of the passing of the Act and of the independence of Singapore upon separation from Malaysia. Pursuant to this provision, modification orders, prepared by the Attorney-General, have been published. With a view to facilitating a reading of the laws modified during the Malaysian period and also in consequence of orders made under the Republic of Singapore Independence Act, 1965, it is proposed to publish reprints of laws, embodying all amendments and modifications whatsoever made to them during the last ten years, and several reprints have already been published. The Interpretation Act, 1965, at section 38 provides the necessary authority for the issue of reprints of our laws, and these will form part of the next Revised Edition of the Laws of Singapore.

Turning now to the contents of the Revised Edition of the Laws Bill, it will be seen that it follows the general design of the Revised Edition of the Laws Ordinance at Chapter 1 of our present Edition. Provision is made in the Bill for the appointment of a Law Revision Commission. The purpose of this Commission must not be misunderstood; its function is not to revise legislation in the sense of improving it with the object of effecting any changes which the Commission, or the public making representations through the Commission, might consider desirable; nor is it the function of the Commission to introduce legislative measures or concepts of advantage to Singapore. Rather, its purpose is solely to issue a revised edition of all principal and subsidiary legislation, faithfully incorporating all the amendments and modifications that have been made and published to date, either by way of statutory enactments or Modification Orders. The President is to appoint the Law Revision Commission comprising, as Law Commissioners, the Attorney-General and such other person as may be appointed by the President to prepare and publish a Revised Edition of Acts and a Revised Edition of Subsidiary Legislation. The Commission's work is purely technical and is clearly defined at clause 4 of the Bill. What the Commission is empowered to do in the process of revision is carefully circumscribed; the Commission is charged with the task of making the law, as it stands, readable, but it has no authority to indulge in the luxury of making innovations to the law.

The principal feature of the Bill and the manner in which it departs from previous enactments of this kind is that the Revised Edition of Acts and of Subsidiary Legislation may be prepared and published, at the Commissioners' discretion, volume by volume, in any sequence and at such times as they may deem expedient. Instead, therefore, of the usual tedious interval of several years before the Revised Edition as a whole is published, volumes will appear one after another as rapidly as possible, each volume coming into force from such date as the President may determine. While, in the case of the previous Edition, it took four years for the preparation and publication of the whole Revised Edition, it is hoped to print the first volume of the new Edition shortly and to make available the remaining volumes, one by one, to the Bench, the Bar, Government officers, the public and all those who need to refer to our laws.

The Bill provides that upon the completion of any volume of the Revised Edition of Acts or of Subsidiary Legislation, the Commissioners shall transmit a copy thereof to the President who may specify, by order published in the Gazette, the date on which the completed volume shall come into force, and from that date the laws in question will become part of the Statute Book of Singapore. It is provided that after the publication of that order, the volume in question shall be published and presented to Parliament.

Mr Speaker, Sir, the Revised Edition of the Laws Bill, when enacted, will be the instrument which will render possible the consolidation, collation and codification of the laws of Singapore so that the law on any particular subject can be read as a clear, connected and complete entity and so that good order and certitude will be brought into our Statute Books where chaos once existed, and legislative untidiness transmuted into coherent neatness. Law without tears, Mr Speaker, Sir, is what this Bill in brief aims to achieve.

Mr Speaker, Sir, I beg to move.

Question put, and agreed to.

Bill accordingly read a Second time and committed to a Committee of the whole House.

The House immediately resolved itself into a Committee on the Bill. -[Mr Yong Nyuk Lin].

Bill considered in Committee; reported without amendment; read a Third time and passed.