Jaclyn L Neo - Constitutional Change in Singapore

Once a ceremonial position modelled after the constitutional monarchy in the United Kingdom, the office of the President of Singapore was transformed from an appointed to an elected one in 1991. As the Head of State, but not the head of government, the Elected President was to have additional discretionary powers involving the spending of financial reserves, appointment of high-ranking public servants and certain ministerial powers to detain without trial. In 2016, a Constitutional Commission was convened to consider further reforms to the office and the elections process. This book explores Singapores Presidency, assessing how well it has functioned, discussing the rationales for an Elected Presidency and evaluating the Constitutional Commissions recommendations for reforms, including the need for minority representation in the office. In doing so, the book provides important reflections on how the constitutional reform process raises crucial questions about the rule of law and the practice of constitutionalism in Singapore.

Jaclyn L. Neo is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law at the National University of Singapore.

Swati S. Jhaveri is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Law at the National University of Singapore.

Series editors

Randall Peerenboom

Pip Nicholson

Reforming the Elected Presidency

Edited by Jaclyn L. Neo and Swati S. Jhaveri

First published 2020

by Routledge

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2020 selection and editorial matter, Jaclyn L. Neo and Swati S. Jhaveri; individual chapters, the contributors

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ISBN: 978-1-138-06204-7 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-315-16188-4 (ebk)

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Jaclyn L. Neo is an Associate Professor of Law at the National University of Singapore (NUS). She is a graduate of the NUS Faculty of Law and the Yale Law School. Jaclyn has published in leading journals in her field, including the International Journal of Constitutional Law (ICON), Oxford Journal of Law and Religion, Human Rights Quarterly and the Singapore Journal of Legal Studies. She is the sole editor of Constitutional Interpretation in Singapore: Theory and Practice (Abingdon: Routledge, 2017); and the co-editor of Pluralist Constitutions in Southeast Asia (Singapore: Hart, 2019) and Regulating Religion in Asia: Norms, Modes, and Challenges (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019). She served as a guest editor for special issues of the Singapore Academy of Law Journal, the Journal of Law, Religion, and State, as well as the Journal of International and Comparative Law. Her article on domestic incorporation of international human rights law in a dualist state won the Asian Yearbook of International Laws DILA International Law Prize. In recognition of her research on religious freedom in Southeast Asia, she was awarded the SHAPE-SEA Research Award in 2017. Jaclyns work has been cited by the Singapore courts and the Supreme Court of India.

Swati S. Jhaveri is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Law of the National University of Singapore. Her research areas are constitutional and administrative law, with a focus on the latter. She has published in these areas in Public Law, the Tort Law Review, Singapore Journal of Legal Studies, Asian Journal of Comparative Law, Federal Law Review and the International Journal of Constitutional Law. She obtained her Bachelor of Arts in Jurisprudence and Bachelor of Civil Law from the University of Oxford and is currently a candidate for a DPhil in Law at Oxford. Her thesis looks at developing a positive theory of the executive branch as a constitutional actor/author. She has previously taught at the Faculty of Law at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. At NUS, she has been awarded the Faculty and Universitys Annual Teaching Excellence Awards for three consecutive years and was placed on the University Honour Roll for Teaching Excellence in 2018. She has also held visiting positions at Melbourne Law School and Columbia Law School.

Maartje De Visser is an Associate Professor of Law and currently also the Associate Dean for (Postgraduate Teaching and Curriculum) at the School of Law of the Singapore Management University. She read for law at Maastricht and Oxford (with distinction), and obtained her PhD (cum laude) at Tilburg University, which was subsequently published as a monograph with Hart. Her main research interests are in the fields of comparative constitutional law and regional integration, and her current work focuses on constitutional interpretation by State institutions other than courts and cross-border judicial networking. Maartje has published widely in these areas, with her work appearing in peer-reviewed international journals including the