Law, at its very foundation, is conceived and derived from values.

“Law, at its very foundation, is conceived and derived from values.”
 
In this speech by Chief Justice James Allsop of the Federal Court of Australia titled “Values in law: how they influence and shape rules and the application of law”, he makes the case that law is fundamentally based on human values.
 
One aspect of that is to control human power.

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Legislation Update: COVID-19 (Temporary Measures) Act 2020

Photo by cottonbro from Pexels

Summary

If your business has been affected by COVID-19, consider if you may seek temporary relief under the new law or object to another party relying on such relief.

First, determine if your contract falls within the Scheduled Contracts.

Second, analyse or get legal advice on whether the inability to perform obligations is to a material extent due to a COVID-19 event.

Third, if you are the defaulting party, serve a notification for relief. If you are the non-defaulting party, consider whether to apply to the assessor for determination if such relief is entitled.

Fourth, if you have ongoing legal proceedings or action or arbitral proceedings, consider if you are barred from continuing further steps.

If your organization requires the conduct of meetings e.g. Annual General Meetings, take note of alternative arrangements for the conduct of meetings which would be compliant with circuit breaker and other measures.

If you are a property owner or tenant, consider if you may be required or entitled to pass or receive the benefits of property tax reductions.

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Letters of the Law: a letter to my 19-year-old self

Had the privilege to participate in this meaningful initiative by some law students. I hope my juniors at their crossroads will be at least a little aided by this reflection, a letter addressed to my 19-year-old self who just resigned himself to accepting NUS Law.

http://www.lettersofthelaw.org/read-a…/ronald-jj-wong-lawyer

“Dear Ronald,

It may be rough for you right now, I know. You are struggling with intellectual skepticism of just about everything. There’s a gnawing void in your heart and soul. You messed up your application to Oxford. You have neither the funds nor a scholarship to go to any of the U.S. colleges offered to you. Your fanciful idea of becoming an investment banker and earning heaps of money so you can retire early seems out of reach. And you might feel disappointed about having to take up the offer from NUS Law. Everything doesn’t make sense to you now.

Believe me. Those things are some of the best things that will happen to you. Because it is in the ashes of those broken ambitions and the intellectual and emotional vacuum of fallen mental frameworks and fractured relationships that you will soon find purpose, meaning and community.

You will finally encounter in a metaphysical way the one through whom everything will become clear. You will find enjoyment not just in studying the law but also in the justice that undergirds it. You will experience a holy dissatisfaction with the conception of justice, or injustice, you will witness. And you will dig in ancient places for the justice which satisfies. Through that, you will find purpose and significance in the one who out of justice and mercy redeems you from the injustice you are complicit in, who calls you to pursue justice and mercy among those who are often left at the margins. This will be better than money or status or whatever idea of the good life you think you could have with your silly fanciful ambitions.

Don’t fuss about grades. Instead, work hard to receive a proper education. Learn as much as you can to be a good lawyer. And when it is time, you will have to make a difficult decision, a leap of faith, as it were, to follow through with the convictions which will brew inside you after the restlessness you will experience from the dissonance between purpose and reality. Uncertainty is the best place in which faith will reap much harvest. So don’t fear the dark. Go with what has been revealed in the light.

Pursuing the things which are good and right is tiring and difficult. Friendships and community and being are more valuable than activism and fighting and working. That will help you to be faithful to whatever you are called to.

And you will have joy. It’s not the ecstatic kind of joy. It’s a quiet joy. It will co-exist with the sehnsucht which will always simmer in your heart. It is both the joy and the yearning which will sustain you to carry on.

Don’t fear. Have faith. It will all be alright at the end of all things.

Peace,

Ronald”