Conference Timetable

Time

Event

08:30

Registration

09:00

1. Opening Remarks by President of CALC, Justice Johnson Okello

2. Welcome Remarks by Attorney-General of Singapore, Mr Lucien Wong SC

3. Keynote Address by Minister for Law and Second Minister for Home Affairs, Singapore, Mr Edwin Tong SC

10:00

📷 Conference photo-taking

10.30

🍵 Morning break

10:50

Panel: Law Reform Agencies and the role of Legislative Drafting

Anthony North KC and Professor Penney Lewis

Chair: Matthew Jolley

11:20

Panel: Drafting and the art of negotiation in a changing world

Phil Chessum, Michelle Daley and Aleks Hynna

Chair: Natalie Plumstead

12:05

Perspectives across the Commonwealth

1. Professional Ethics and the Legislative Drafter: A Ghanaian Perspective — Heidi-Marie Boakye

2. Legislating in a changing office — Lucy Marsh-Smith

Chair: Felicity !Owoses

12:50

🍽️ Lunch

13:40

Delivering legislative programmes

1. Drafting legislation in a rapidly evolving political and legal landscape: how to deliver effective bills in a fast-paced world — Jessica de Mounteney

2. Leveraging data for effective management of the legislative pipeline — Richard Wallace

Chair: Dame Brenda King

14:40

Legislative definitions

1. Legislative definitions and the penumbra of words — James Adutt, Jane Irving and Alex Lo

2. Can a tiger be a pet? The Australian approach to interpreting defined terms in statute — Rebecca Scott

Chair: Eamonn Moran PSM KC SBS

15:40

🍵 Afternoon break

16:00

Panel: Use of AI in Drafting Offices

Arina Joanisse, Angela Beck, Andy Neale, Alice Harrison-Needham, James Adutt and Chong Kah Wei

Chair: Jeanne Lee

17:00

End of Day 1 academic programme

Time

Event

18:00-
20:30

Welcome Reception for Delegates and Guests

• Welcome remarks by Deputy Attorney-General of Singapore, Mr Lionel Yee SC, at 18:30

• Drinks served from 18:00; live food stations start after Welcome Remarks and end at 20:15

Time

Events

Breakout room 1: Ballroom

Breakout room 2: Boardroom

Breakout room 3: EDB Room

09:00

Plain language

1. Laws and Plain Language: the state of play, 40 years on — Ben Piper

2. Operationalizing Legislative Quality: A comparative analysis of drafting techniques used in Barbados, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand — Shaquille K Newton

3. The Development of Plain Language Drafting Culture: Australia, Canada and New Zealand (video recording) — Archie Zariski

Chair: Michelle Daley

New Ways of Working: Technology and Collaboration — Daniel Baird, Pasha Peyrovi and Nina Ding

Chair: Andy Neale

[Blank]

09:30

Annotated Statutes and Statutory Dictionary: Upcoming features in Singapore’s LawNet — Mark Fisher, Michelle Chua and Alvaro Vigil

Chair: Andy Neale

Drafting in the Disruption: Regulating the Legal Profession in the Age of Artificial Intelligence — Ricardo Bates-Sealy

Chair: Craig Rosario

10:00

Updating what we tell ourselves about “the legislative sentence” for the AI age — Matthew Waddington

Chair: Lucy Marsh-Smith

Legislating the Conditions for Digital Criminal Procedure in a Changing World — Ning Jia

Chair: Don Colagiuri SC

10:30

🍵 Morning break

10:50

Working with external rules

1. Interpretation and Enforcement of Australian Standards in NSW — Byron Clugston

2. Drafting for Implementation: Ensuring Model Laws Translate into Effective Domestic Legislation — Susan Jarvis

3. Soft Law, Hard Consequences: Supersession, erosion, and the legislative drafter as constitutional navigator — Liness Chikankheni

Chair: Dr Katy Le Roy

Statutory interpretation

1. Default Interpretive Rules in a Changing World — Ross Pey

2. Plain Language and the Readability Trap — Benjamin Minhao Chen

Chair: Owi Beng Ki

Regulating as a Global Activity — State of Play and Trends — Manfred Kohler

Chair: Rehema Katuga

11:20

Legislative Reform to Foster a Sustainable Orbital Launch Industry — Mason Stott

Chair: Lee Yean-Lin

11:50

What to except when you're excepting: drafting exceptions to offences — Ben Fraser

Chair: Andrew Jones

The Landscape of Legislative Drafting: Expanding the Drafter’s Role in an Authoritarian Age — David Marcello

Chair: Stanley Kok

12:20

🍽️ Lunch

13:10

Delegation

1. Primary v. secondary legislation: balancing democratic accountability and legislative agility — Lydia Clapinska and Alex Lo

2. A South African Update: The Delegation of Plenary Legislative Power and the Need for Executive Flexibility — Heinrich Muller

3. Facilitating the delegation of statutory powers: is there a role for an Interpretation Act? — Eamonn Moran PSM KC SBS

Chair: Aleksander Hynna

Backbench legislation

1. Private members’ Bills and the statute book — Byron Clugston and Michael Mendel

2. AI as the Great Equaliser: Restoring Legislative Agency in Post-Colonial Parliaments — The Punjab Assembly Case — Usama Khawar and Malik Taimour Ahmad Khan

Chair: Charlie Feldman

Evidence-Based Lawmaking: Thailand’s Legislative Drafting Act and Comparative Insights from the Commonwealth — Kiratipong Naewmalee

Chair: Joyce Chao

13:40

Traversing the Reforms and the Future Legislation of International Investment Law for Treaty Arbitration — Dr Sanya Yadav

Chair: Lee Chuan Huei

14:10

Parliaments and procedure

1. What does Parliament want to see in a bill? Exploring Canadian printing requirements — Charlie Feldman

2. Parliamentary sovereignty, separation of powers and the legislative process — Saira Salimi

Chair: Tay Li Hang

Editing for Legislative Resilience: Transferable Cross Disciplinary Editorial Skills to Strengthen Legislative Drafts — Tara Smith

Chair: Lucy Marsh-Smith

14:40

Drafting to Criminalise Misogyny — Genevieve Parke

Chair: Dylan Hughes

Consolidation Acts: do we still need them? — James George

Chair: Richard Hughes

15:10

Working draft(er)s: a conversation about early career drafting — Liz Larbalestier and Isaac Mok

Chair: Ben Fraser

Fireside chat: The leadership challenges of running a drafting office — Jessica de Mounteney and Andy Beattie

[Blank]

15:40

🍵 Afternoon break

16:00

End of Day 2 academic programme

16:00-
17:30

[Blank]

CALC General Meeting
(CALC members only)

[Blank]

Time

Event

18:00-
late

Gala Dinner for Delegates and Guests

• Drinks, Singapore snacks and game stalls from 18:00

• Delegates and guests to be seated by 19:00

Time

Event

09:00

Designing and drafting legislation to support digital decision-making: What is possible? What is appropriate? — David Goddard KC

Chair: Peter Quiggin KC

09:45

How to train a drafter? — Alice Harrison-Needham and Lydia Clapinska

10:15

🍵 Morning break

10:45

Singapore’s legislative philosophy through the lens of public housing — Seow Zhixiang

Chair: Andy Beattie

11:15

Drafting and technology

1. Legislative Drafting for a World Transformed by Technology & Social Media — Charles Lim Aeng Cheng

2. Who Serves as the Drafter in an AI-Generated World? A Case Study of Alberta’s Whisky Act — Benjamyn McKay

Chair: Kerri Sinclair

12:15

1. Closing Remarks by Incoming CALC President

2. Closing Remarks by Chief Legislative Counsel, AGC Singapore

12:40

🍽️ Lunch

13:30

End of Day 3 academic programme