At a reception at the Asian Civilisations Museum on the evening of 19 September, Fountain Court Chambers announced the winners of the Christopher Bathurst Prize 2017. The prize is an annual writing competition, named in honour of the late Christopher Bathurst QC, who was a long-standing senior member of Fountain Court Chambers with strong ties to Singapore. The prize is open to full-time students enrolled at the National University of Singapore Faculty of Law or the Singapore Management University School of Law, and lawyers under 30 years old qualified under the Legal Profession Act. The prize is supported by the Singapore Academy of Law.

The topic for this year was ‘Do the benefits of confidential arbitrations always outweigh the downsides expressed by the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales last year, when he said, “Arbitration confidentiality perpetuates public ignorance of continuing hazards, systemic problems, or public needs . . .”?’

Ms Rachel Tan, who recently received her LLB from NUS, won the third prize. Rachel is a research assistant to CIL Director Professor Lucy Reed, while also doing Part B at the Singapore Institute for Legal Education as an Incoming Practice Trainee at Rajah & Tann. The first and second prizes went to practising lawyers Kevin Elbert Toa of OC Queen Street/Osborne Clarke and Annia Hsu of Eldan Law respectively.