Friday, March 06, 2009

Supreme Court Open House


The solemn Singapore Supreme Court will open its house to the public for the first time in history come next weekend March 14 and 15, in the hope of ‘demystifying’ the institution and lessening the “anxiety” that people have about the courts and to show that “courts are not such a forbidding place”, in the words of Assistant Director Desiree Pang.

A mock criminal trial would be held at the supreme court to give public a glimpse of the workings of the court. The trial will be to find out the murderer of Humpty Dumpty (poor Humpty Dumpty! Haha, anyway since young, I always thought Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall and fell to death after a bad fall, now I learnt that it is ‘murdered’, interesting indeed!) The suspects would be Big Bad Wolf, Little Red Riding Hood and Blind Mouse Satu (I do not know who is Blind Mouse Satu), all fictional story book characters they should be! I must really applaud the supreme court for coming out with such an innovative idea using interesting and appealing story characters for the mock trial. The half-hourly ‘Humpty’ trial will be performed by court staff, in full costume. There will even be a cordoned off ‘’crime scene’ within the building!

Other programmes included mock civil and criminal proceedings inside actual courtrooms, 30—minute tours of the building, an exhibition debunking various “stereotypes” in Singapore courts, as well legal talks and clinics by the Law Society of Singapore. There are photo opportunities where one can dress up in a lawyer’s robe (wigs are optional) or be photographed as a criminal.

For more information, visit the website now.

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