The New Contractual Interpretation in Singapore: From Zurich Insurance to Sembcorp Marine

This article seeks in three ways to contribute to the continued refinement of contractual interpretation in Singapore following Zurich Insurance and, more recently, Sembcorp Marine. First, it identifies the key rulings of law derived from the cases. From these, relevant issues in contractual interpr...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: GOH, Yihan
Format: text
Language:English
Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2013
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sol_research/1412
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Institution: Singapore Management University
Language: English
Description
Summary:This article seeks in three ways to contribute to the continued refinement of contractual interpretation in Singapore following Zurich Insurance and, more recently, Sembcorp Marine. First, it identifies the key rulings of law derived from the cases. From these, relevant issues in contractual interpretation will be distilled. It is important to identify and distinguish between the exact issues because their conflation will lead to confusion in an area already affected by much complexity due to the concurrent application of statutory and common law principles. Second, this article evaluates the courts' approaches to those issues. The principal difficulty is that there is a need to distinguish between statutory and common law principles. Third, this article suggests some possible reforms in the future. It considers whether it is possible to achieve a commercially sensible approach while keeping within the statutory constraints that bind the courts, or whether legislative reform is required.