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About Jack Tsen-Ta LEE

I graduated from the National University of Singapore with an LLB (Hons) in 1995 and qualified as an advocate and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Singapore the following year. In 2001 I also became a solicitor of the Senior Courts of England and Wales. After practising for about six years as a litigator with a Singapore law firm, I took up postgraduate studies at University College London on a British Chevening Scholarship and was conferred an LLM in 2003. I then returned to Singapore and worked as an Assistant Director for the Singapore Academy of Law, a promotion and development agency for Singapore’s legal industry. I completed my PhD studies at the Birmingham Law School, University of Birmingham, in the United Kingdom in 2012. My doctoral research examined the interpretation of bills of rights from a comparative law perspective.

I taught at the School of Law, Singapore Management University, from 2008 to 2017, during which I was a 2009 Lee Foundation Fellow for Research Excellence, and won the School of Law’s Most Promising Teacher Award for 2010–2011. In August 2017, I rejoined the Singapore Academy of Law as its Deputy Research Director between 2017 and 2019. I taught cultural industries and the law, and media law and policy, on a part-time basis for the Department of Communications and New Media, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, NUS, in 2023.

I was previously a member of the National Collection Advisory Panel of the National Heritage Board (NHB, 2013–2021), the Nomination Committee for for the Inscription of Hawker Culture in Singapore to the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity (2018–2020), and the Design Advisory Panel (Conservation) of the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA, 2022–2024). At present, I am an expert member of the International Scientific Committee on Legal, Administrative and Financial Issues (ICLAFI) of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) (since 2016); and a member of the URA’s Heritage and Identity Panel (since 2018), and the NHB’s Archaeology Advisory Panel (since 2019). In addition, I was the President of the Singapore Heritage Society between 9 September 2017 and 22 September 2023.

I have research interests in heritage law, media law, administrative law, constitutional law, and human rights law.

Positions

April 2016 - Present Expert Member, International Scientific Committee on Legal, Financial and Administrative Issues (ICLAFI) ‐ International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS)
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August 2017 - December 2019 Deputy Research Director, Singapore Academy of Law ‐ Law Reform Committee
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November 2008 - June 2017 Assistant Professor of Law, Singapore Management University ‐ School of Law
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2005 - 2008 Visiting Lecturer and Postgraduate Teaching Assistant, University of Birmingham, UK ‐ Birmingham Law School
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2003 - 2005 Assistant Director (Publications), Singapore Academy of Law
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Curriculum Vitae



Research Interests

Administrative Law, Constitutional Law, Human Rights Law, Media Law, and Law of Cultural Property and Heritage

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Honors and Awards

  • Law Club Colours Award for extracurricular contributions to the Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore (1994)
  • British Chevening Scholarship for LLM studies, University College London (2002–2003)
  • Postgraduate Teaching Assistantship for PhD studies, University of Birmingham (2006–2008)
  • Lee Foundation Fellowship for Research Excellence (2009–2010)
  • School of Law Most Promising Teacher Award 2010–2011

Courses

  • Constitutional and Administrative Law
  • Law and the Changing Media Environment

Education

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2005 - 2012 PhD in Law, University of Birmingham, UK ‐ Birmingham Law School
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2002 - 2003 LLM, University College London (UCL) ‐ Faculty of Laws
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1991 - 1995 LLB (Hons), National University of Singapore ‐ Faculty of Law
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Law of Cultural Property and Heritage (10)

Interpretation of Constitutions and Bills of Rights (11)

Constitutional and Human Rights Law (26)