Legal monolingualism in a multilingual state: whither bilingual legal education in Singapore?

• Main Author: Koh, Alan K.
• Other Authors: Nanyang Business School
• Language: English
• Published: 2023
• Subjects: Humanities::Linguistics::Sociolinguistics::Bilingualism::Singapore; Business::Law::In South Asia::Singapore; Legal Education; Singapore
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/164411; https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-84550-6#toc
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Singapore is a multi-ethnic state with four official languages and a long-standing state language policy of bilingualism. Yet the world of law, legal practice, and legal education is startlingly monolingual: all legislation, legal proceedings, and formal mandatory legal training are exclusively in English. Despite efforts from the 2000s by two of three Singapore law schools at offering law courses taught in a language other than English, as well as student exchange opportunities, formidable obstacles—attributable to state language policy and economic realities—lie in the path of further development of bilingual legal education in Singapore.