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The Supreme Court of Singapore is one of the two tiers of the court system in Singapore, the other tier being the Subordinate Courts.
The Supreme Court consists of the Court of Appeal and the High Court and hears both civil and criminal matters. The Court of Appeal hears both civil and criminal appeals from the High Court. The Court of Appeal may also decide a point of law reserved for its decision by the High Court, as well as any point of law of public interest arising in the course of an appeal from a subordinate court to the High Court, which has been reserved by the High Court for the decision of the Court of Appeal.
The High Court's jurisdiction is as follows: generally, a civil case is commenced in the High Court if the subject matter of the claim exceeds S$250,000. Probate matters are dealt with in the High Court if the value of the estate exceeds S$3 million or if the case involves the resealing of a foreign grant. In addition, ancillary matters in family proceedings involving assets of S$1.5 million or above are heard in the High Court.
Criminal cases involving offences which carry the death penalty and generally those punishable with imprisonment for a term exceeding ten years, are prosecuted in the High Court.
From Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supreme_Court_of_Singapore
Text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_the_GNU_Free_Documentation_License |
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The new site is 72,000 m² and was designed with the disabled, young, and elderly in mind.
The building was officially opened on January 7, 2006, by President Sellapan Ramanathan. It accommodates 12 civil courts, eight criminal courts, three appellate courts and accompanying suites of ancillary facilities. Each courtroom is located within a court block that also contains a hearing chamber where the judge may meet with counsel in private; a court conference room for discussions among lawyers and two witness rooms which serve as holding areas for witnesses.
The design of the current Supreme Court building mirrors the Supreme Court's organizational structure. The courtrooms where the High Court hearings take place are contained in the lower levels of the building, from levels two through six. The Court of Appeal, the highest appellate court in the land, is symbolically raised to the apex of the building and houses at the centre of the disc.
In addition to the court blocks, eight registrars' chambers, where a host of pre- and post-trial applications are heard, have been clustered on level two for the convenience of lawyers who may be required to attend before different registrars in the same day.
The building showcases an abundance of glass in the atriums, skylights and lift shafts, signifying the ideal of transparency in the law. |
