The Conceptualisation of Pro Bono in Singapore
Abstract
“Pro bono” is a familiar phrase in North American jurisdictions that generally refers to a lawyer’s provision of free legal services to indigent persons. The phrase “pro bono” has also come to imply a particular approach to a lawyer’s relationship to indigent persons, one that stresses the obligatory as opposed to the charitable nature of the services provided. To what extent has this phrase, and its conceptualisation of a lawyer’s role, been used in Asian jurisdictions? This article examines how one Asian jurisdiction, Singapore, conceptualises a lawyer’s relationship to indigent persons by examining newspaper usage of phrases describing legal services for indigent persons. The article argues that changes in usage over time, from free legal services and legal aid to inclusion of pro bono, coupled with increased discussions of access to justice, represent a shift to a more obligatory concept of indigent legal services. An obligatory conceptualisation potentially exerts greater pressure on lawyers to provide indigent legal services, but can also exert pressure to revise the historical lack of broad-based government funded criminal legal aid in Singapore.
Acknowledgements
The author wishes to thank the three anonymous readers for their invaluable suggestions and feedback; Adjunct Professor Kevin Y. L. Tan for his suggestions and his inspiring body of work; Research Assistant Will Zhang for his extensive research support, done quickly and with insight; and Khadijah Yasin, for her volunteered research that supported the early stage of the project.
©2014 by De Gruyter
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Preface to Special Issue
- Socio-legal Scholarship on Southeast Asia: Themes and Directions
- Articles
- Charting Socio-Legal Scholarship on Southeast Asia: Key Themes and Future Directions
- Revolution Imagined: Cause Advocacy, Consumer Rights, and the Evolving Role of NGOs in Thailand
- New Transnational Governance and the Changing Composition of Regulatory Pluralism in Southeast Asia
- The Conceptualisation of Pro Bono in Singapore
- Alliances and Contestations in the Legal Production of Space: The Case of Bali
- The Philippine Supreme Court and Regime Response, 1970–2000
- Comparative Law, Anti-essentialism and Intersectionality: Reflections from Southeast Asia in Search of an Elusive Balance
- Historicising “Law” as a Language of Progress and Its Anomalies: The Case of Penal Law Reforms in Colonial India
- Is Japan Ready for Enduring Powers? A Comparative Analysis of Enduring Powers Reform
- Controlling Shareholders: Issues and Challenges for Shareholders’ Empowerment in Directors’ Remuneration in Corporate Malaysia
- Competition Law and the Regulation of Buyer Power and Buyer Cartels in China and Hong Kong
- Dishonest Assistance in Singapore and Malaysia since Barlow Clowes
- A Bolder Step towards Privacy Protection in Hong Kong: A Statutory Cause of Action
- Book Review
- Jie Huang: Interregional Recognition and Enforcement of Civil and Commercial Judgments
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Preface to Special Issue
- Socio-legal Scholarship on Southeast Asia: Themes and Directions
- Articles
- Charting Socio-Legal Scholarship on Southeast Asia: Key Themes and Future Directions
- Revolution Imagined: Cause Advocacy, Consumer Rights, and the Evolving Role of NGOs in Thailand
- New Transnational Governance and the Changing Composition of Regulatory Pluralism in Southeast Asia
- The Conceptualisation of Pro Bono in Singapore
- Alliances and Contestations in the Legal Production of Space: The Case of Bali
- The Philippine Supreme Court and Regime Response, 1970–2000
- Comparative Law, Anti-essentialism and Intersectionality: Reflections from Southeast Asia in Search of an Elusive Balance
- Historicising “Law” as a Language of Progress and Its Anomalies: The Case of Penal Law Reforms in Colonial India
- Is Japan Ready for Enduring Powers? A Comparative Analysis of Enduring Powers Reform
- Controlling Shareholders: Issues and Challenges for Shareholders’ Empowerment in Directors’ Remuneration in Corporate Malaysia
- Competition Law and the Regulation of Buyer Power and Buyer Cartels in China and Hong Kong
- Dishonest Assistance in Singapore and Malaysia since Barlow Clowes
- A Bolder Step towards Privacy Protection in Hong Kong: A Statutory Cause of Action
- Book Review
- Jie Huang: Interregional Recognition and Enforcement of Civil and Commercial Judgments
