Commonwealth Association of Legislative Counsel Conference 2026 - Welcome Remarks by the Attorney-General Lucien Wong S.C.

Justice Dr. Johnson Okello, President of the Commonwealth Association of Legislative Counsel;

Mr Edwin Tong S.C., Minister for Law and Second Minister for Home Affairs;

Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen;

It is my great pleasure to welcome all of you to Singapore for the 2026 Conference of the Commonwealth Association of Legislative Counsel (“CALC”). I know that many of you have travelled vast distances to be here today. Thank you very much for coming to Singapore, and may I also thank Mr Edwin Tong for agreeing to be here this morning and delivering the keynote address.

First, for those who are not aware, the Attorney-General’s Chambers of Singapore performs a variety of roles. We not only have a prosecutorial function, we are the public prosecutor, but we are also the legal adviser to the Government as well as the drafter of laws. So my office do a variety of work, including drafting work. As Attorney-General of Singapore, I am both the Public Prosecutor and the Government’s lawyer. As the Government’s lawyer, my responsibilities include overseeing the legal officers who are responsible for producing all Government legislation, and I therefore know firsthand that legislative drafters are a rare breed of lawyers.

More than 50 years ago, the Renton Committee in its seminal Report said: “The drafting of legislation is an exacting vocation which demands a high degree of intellectual ability, a sound knowledge of the law, the ability to write good English and an unlimited capacity for sustained hard work. These qualities do not often come together in the same individual, and lawyers with such gifts will have other attractive opportunities for advancement in their profession.”

Those observations still hold true today. And I am pleased to say that the Attorney-General’s Chambers of Singapore is fortunate – and indeed Singapore is fortunate – to have an excellent team of lawyers who have chosen to take up the exacting vocation of law drafting, delivering on a Government legislative programme that is ever increasing in volume and complexity. In the last five years, we drafted Bills on novel and diverse areas of great importance to Singapore, such as electric vehicles, online safety, racial harmony, coastal protection, cross-border railways, scams, platform workers, workplace fairness and foreign interference. In 2024, the last full year before the dissolution of the Singapore Parliament in 2025, we delivered 50 Bills for introduction in Parliament, a high number for a small country like Singapore.

Over the next few days, it will be our privilege to host all of you – our counterparts in law drafting from across the Commonwealth and beyond, as well as judges, government legal advisors, scholars and officials with an interest in the subject of drafting.

As you know, we are meeting at a time of profound change in the world: demographic changes, changes in technology, changes to the international order, changes to our natural environment. Our laws must keep up with these changes, while remaining clear, accessible, and faithful to foundational principles of responsible government and the rule of law. As guardians of the Statute Book, law drafters have an indispensable role to play in how each of our legal systems adapt to a changing world. The way law drafters work will also change, as will the way in which the Statute Book is used by lawyers and the public. Jeanne, my Chief Legislative Counsel, will chair a panel today on how AI is used by different drafting offices, and tomorrow our Singapore Academy of Law will share a preview of how they use AI tools to extract statutory interpretation principles from case law and present them alongside the legislative provisions.

Now I should add that we are meeting at a significant milestone for the Singapore legal system. 2026 is the bicentennial of the Second Charter of Justice 1826, the instrument that established Singapore as a common law jurisdiction. So there are a number of events this year to celebrate this important event in our legal history. 200 years ago we brought the common law to Singapore, and we kept the common law after Singapore’s independence in 1965, and we continue to closely follow legal developments in the common law world. In the sphere of legislative drafting, my law drafters have gained much from CALC conferences over the years, making friends and bringing new insights back to their work. This year, it is our turn to host and to give back to the CALC community and we are very pleased to be able to do this.

My team are really excited and has worked hard for many months to put together a full programme for this Conference. We have many excellent presentations and panels from a diverse range of distinguished contributors. But outside the formal sessions, we are hosting a welcome reception tonight and a Gala Dinner tomorrow. I also hope you will have some time to explore our city and sample some of our local food.

Welcome again to Singapore, and I wish everyone of you a very fulfilling Conference. Thank you.