Access to Court Records: The Secret to Open Justice

23 Pages Posted: 10 Feb 2012

See all articles by Vanessa Yeo

Vanessa Yeo

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Date Written: December 31, 2011

Abstract

This paper concerns the legal framework governing non-party access to court records in Singapore. It provides a brief comparative study of the access frameworks in Australia and the UK. From this comparative analysis, guiding principles and procedures are distilled to facilitate suggestions on how Singapore’s current access regime may be reformed. Open justice and the freedom of information and expression may be fundamental principles, but they do not mandate an unquestioned right of access to judicial records as the interests of justice may be served by both disclosure and non-disclosure. Both principles must be balanced against competing considerations, such as confidentiality and the right to a fair trial. An access regime is not built on open justice alone. It must adeptly reconcile all the competing factors in a manner which best secures the proper administration of justice.

Suggested Citation

Yeo, Vanessa, Access to Court Records: The Secret to Open Justice (December 31, 2011). Singapore Journal of Legal Studies, pp. 510-532, December 2011, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2002482

Vanessa Yeo (Contact Author)

affiliation not provided to SSRN ( email )

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