Principles of Civil Procedure by Jeffrey Pinsler SC [Singapore: Academy Publishing, 2013]
Principles of Civil Procedureis a long-awaited comprehensive text book for civil litigation in the 21st Century in Singapore. The first text book on civil litigation in Singapore was also authored by Professor Jeffrey Pinsler S C (Civil Procedure, Butterworths Asia, 1994). Subsequent to 1994, though Professor Pinsler produced a number of related books on civil procedure and they include Supreme Court Practice(the latest edition being 2009) and the Evidence and the Litigation Process(Third Edition, 2010), both published by Lexis Nexis, neither of the two is a complete and current text book on Civil Procedure in Singapore. The Supreme Court Practice (2009), like its earlier editions, is arranged sequentially according to the various Orders of the Rules of Court of Singapore, akin to the famed White Book in England and the Singapore Civil Procedurepublished by Thomson. As for Evidence and the Litigation Process(Third Edition, 2010), its primary focus is not civil procedure. It is only in Part VI that the trial process is covered. Even then, it is not dedicated to civil trials and that part of the book equally applies to non-civil trials. The vast majority of the book ie Parts I to V cover the law of evidence as the title of Evidence and the Litigation Processsuggests.
While Professor Pinsler has produced no less than 16 major works (excluding legal journal articles) as writer and/or general editor, the completion and publication of Principles of Civil Proceduremust surely have been a jubilant moment worth celebrating about. Having taught generations of law students civil litigation, this textbook fully enshrines the legislation, cases, materials and resources that every law student (including candidates for Civil Litigation in Part B of the Singapore Bar Exam) and practitioner will find useful. The author has endeavoured to state the case law as it stood on 15 July 2012.
The arrangement of the contents in Principles of Civil Procedureis extremely well-thought out. The development of the chapters reflects the various stages of civil litigation from commencement of action, pleadings, disclosure, trial, judgments, enforcement, appeals and ends with costs. This logical flow not only mirrors the realities of civil litigation, it is also how law students are taught civil procedure both in law schools as well as the preparatory course for Part B of the Singapore Bar Exam. This arrangement of the contents is certainly more user-friendly and intuitive for someone less familiar with the subject as it allows the reader to focus on that particular stage of the proceedings rather than having to search for the relevant Order of the Rules of Court in order to find out a particular point or issue in the Supreme Court Practice(where the contents are arranged according to the Orders of the Rules of Court).
This massive work on civil procedure by Professor Pinsler is an innovation. The contents are divided into ten distinct parts. At the beginning of each part, there is a pullout flowchart that carefully, concisely and cogently sets out the Core Principle governing each of the ten parts. The Main Principles that impact each chapter classified under that Part are also laid out along with the Subsidiary Principles that apply to each chapter. Professor Pinsler diligently repeats this structured format for all ten parts of the book. Each of the ten pullouts serves as a concise summary of the legal principles to each part of the book and its antecedent chapters. To improve the presentation of these pullout flowcharts, in the next print, Professor Pinsler can consider setting out the “title” of each chapter in the inset instead of just the chapter number. This will assist readers to connect more quickly to the main principles and subsidiary principles laid down for each chapter.
Every chapter ends off with the applicable prescribed forms that are found in the Rules of Court. As civil procedure is a very practical subject, awareness of the existence of relevant forms is absolutely critical. By including the forms in every chapter, readers not only save a lot of time in research, they are better guided to the correct legal instruments.
Incidentally, Chapter 1, which serves to introduce the subject on civil procedure is also helpful for those who need more information on Singapore’s Legal System, especially the structure of the local Courts. It is also refreshing to see a good coverage on “unless orders” in the opening chapter of the book. By locating “unless orders” at the beginning, it serves as a stark reminder that compliance with procedure and orders of Court is paramount in litigation. Chapter 2 also takes a novel approach by covering methods of alternative dispute resolution (“ADR”). Though ADR is integral in civil litigation, text book writers rarely include ADR in the contents.
The novelty in approach is also apparent in the introductory and the substantive parts of the book. For instance, Part III of the book is cheekily titled “Early Termination by Assaultand Default” covering summary judgments, striking out and setting aside of default judgments. I am particularly grateful to Professor Pinsler for including Chapter 16, “Drafting Pleadings” under Part V of the book. Drafting is not taught in law schools but only at the preparatory course for Part B of the Singapore Bar Exam. Law students and fresh litigation lawyers are always thrown into the deep end when it comes to drafting pleadings, especially the Statement of Claim. They learn from trial and error which is a costly process. Students and instructors at the Part B preparatory course will certainly welcome Chapter 16 as an additional resource to impart principles of drafting pleadings. Hence, this chapter on drafting pleadings is most timely.
Another extremely helpful addition in the text is Chapter 23 on the “Enforcement of Foreign Judgments and Singapore Judgments Abroad”. With the rapid rise of cross-border transactions, Professor Pinsler astutely devotes an entire chapter to this important area of civil practice setting out exhaustively the procedure, practice and policy considerations on reciprocal enforcement of judgments. Practitioners will find this chapter illuminating. It creates an awareness of common pitfalls under the relevant legislation such as the Reciprocal Enforcement of Commonwealth Judgments Act (Cap 264, 1985 Ed) and the Reciprocal Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act (Cap 265, 2001 Rev Ed). The discussion and analysis on recent key judgments in this area including Westacre Investments Inc v The State-Owned Company Yugoimport SDPR[2009] 2 SLR (R)166 (implications of delay in registering a judgment) and Poh Soon Kiat v Desert Palace Inc[2004] 4 SLR (R) 690 are most beneficial (registrability of a judgment in respect of a cause of action which for reasons of public policy could not have been entertained by the registering Court).
Professor Pinsler could, however, have devoted a little more space to some of the emerging areas of civil procedure. For instance, electronic discovery is hardly discussed in the text. That said, given the size of the book, and that electronic discovery is understandably a fairly technical area of civil procedure, it might be more appropriately dealt with in a specialist work such as a monograph. Another area where more coverage would have helped is the concept of “proportionality in costs” (an amendment to Appendix 1 to O 59 of the Rules of Court which took effect from 15 September 2010) since practitioners have yet to fully appreciate this nuanced approach. The landmark decision of the Court of Appeal in Lin Jian Wei v Lim Eng Hock Peter[2011] 3 SLR 1052 on proportionality in costs was referred to but only briefly addressed at Chapter 26 on “Costs” at the relevant paragraphs including 26.032, 26.033, 26.044 and 26.047. Finally, little is known or understood by practitioners on the inherent jurisdiction and inherent power of the Court in civil litigation. In this regard, Professor Pinsler has helpfully set out at paragraph 01.006 the essential principles as distilled from the recent cases and journal articles on this subject. From the vast number of authorities cited in the corresponding footnotes to the paragraph and given the perennial interest in this area of the law, it would have been a good opportunity to detail the various legal arguments in support for the Court’s inherent power and how it should be exercised. Professor Pinsler may, therefore, like to consider enlarging the discussion of some of these areas in the next edition.
Should Professor Pinsler like to consider expanding the scope of coverage in subsequent editions, the following are some suggestions: the adversarial system of litigation in Singapore; the history and development of case management in Singapore and the overriding purpose, principles, and obligations of parties and legal practitioners; procedures to prevent waste and abuse; and possible future reforms to civil procedure.
This publication is no doubt an excellent resource for students, teachers and civil practitioners. Besides purchasing copies for personal use, libraries of law schools and law firms should acquire multiple copies of the book to facilitate longer term loans and additional copies for reference under the Red Spot and/or Course Reserves.
►Tan Boon Heng1
Notes
1 Tan Boon Heng, District Judge, Subordinate Courts of Singapore, Adjunct Faculty, School of Law, Singapore Management University, LL.B. (Hons), National University of Singapore, LL.M., University of California at Berkeley.