This paper examines recent pronouncements, both in and outside of courts, concerning the nature of representative democracy and how it relates to the rule of law in Singapore. Given that conceptions of the rule of law are theorized to require the incorporation of democracy into the legal system, this article examines the implications of recent cases in Singapore for how representative democracy should be understood, and for the mutually supportive nature of democracy and the rule of law. In particular, it analyses the Court of Appeal’s opinion in the seminal case of Vellama d/o Marie Muthu v Attorney-General [2013] 4 SLR 1 where the Court relied on the rule of law in holding that decisions of the Prime Minister on calling by-elections are judicially reviewable.

Our 2020 Annual Conference was scheduled to be held at the University of Wrocław in Poland on July 9-11, 2020.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the ICON·S Executive Committee has decided to postpone our 2020 Conference to 2021. Our next Annual Conference will take place from July 8-10, 2021, in Wrocław, Poland.
Procedural details regarding the organization of the 2021 Conference will follow in the months ahead.
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