KEVIN YL TAN is Visiting Professor at the School. He was born and educated in Singapore, graduating with LLB (Hons) from the Faculty of Law of the National University of Singapore in 1986. He joined the teaching staff of the same faculty that same year. Subsequently obtained his LLM (Masters of Law) and JSD (Doctor in the Science of Law) at Yale Law School in the United States. From 1986 to 2000, he taught at the Law Faculty, specializing in Constitutional and Administrative Law, Law and Government, Law and Society and International Human Rights. He resigned as Associate Professor in 2000 to start his own consultancy but continues to teach law on the part-time basis at both the National University of Singapore and the Nanyang Technological University. Beyond his university duties, he has been active in many organisations, serving as National Programme Commissioner in the Singapore Scout Association (1992-95); Council Member of the National Youth Achievement Award Council (since 1998), Singapore Red Cross Society (since 1999), CSCAP (since 1998), Board Member of the Preservation of Monuments Board (since 1998), Singapore Academy of Law Legal Heritage Committee (since 1999), Executive Director of the Society of International Law, Singapore (1998-2003), President, The Roundtable (1999-2002). Since 2001, he has been President of the Singapore Heritage Society.
He has published widely in his areas of specialization and his Constitutional Law in Malaysia and Singapore is the standard casebook in use in Malaysia and Singapore. He is author/ editor of Managing Political Change in Singapore: The Elected Presidency (Routledge, 1997); Lee’s Lieutenants: Singapore’s Old Guard (Allen & Unwin, 1999) (both with Lam Peng Er); The Singapore Legal System (Singapore University Press, 1999); Scouting in Singapore: 1910-2000 (Singapore Scout Association/National Archives, 2002) (with Wan Meng Hao),Essays in Singapore Legal History (Marshall-Cavendish Academic, 2004),Baden-Powell’s Scouting for Boys: Singapore-Malaysia Edition(Brownsea, 2004), and Introduction to Singapore’s Constitution(Talisman, 2005). Current work in progress includes a second collection of legal history essays, a book of essays on Singapore’s constitution (with Thio Li-ann) and a book on media law (with Ang Peng Hwa).
