Lee Swee Seng

On the judicial record

An appellate and Federal Court judge whose reported corpus ranges across employment, administrative, construction, constitutional and consumer law.

Justice Lee Swee Seng sits in the Court of Appeal (Mahkamah Rayuan) and, increasingly, the Federal Court (Mahkamah Persekutuan), and the reported decisions in this corpus are broad, spanning employment, administrative, construction, constitutional and consumer law. Employment law features through a decision on the continuing post-employment duty of confidentiality and fidelity owed by employees, and a group of constructive-dismissal appeals on whether an employee has an equally valid option to remain with the current employer following the sale of a business to an associate company.

Administrative law is a strong strand: a significant decision on an application for mandamus to compel the Government to transfer land pursuant to an earlier declaration, and whether section 29(1)(b) of the Government Proceedings Act 1956 bars an order for the recovery of land against the Government. Construction adjudication appears through whether a principal may make direct payment to a subcontractor under section 30 of the Construction Industry Payment and Adjudication Act 2012 after an adjudication decision, and arbitration through whether an option clause constitutes a binding arbitration agreement under section 10 of the Arbitration Act 2005.

Constitutional law features through an appeal arising from a charge under section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 and whether restricting words said to be 'offensive' or to 'annoy' was a legitimate restriction on the freedom of speech and expression under Article 10 of the Federal Constitution. Consumer and housing protection appears through a Federal Court decision on a summary-judgment claim for liquidated damages for the late delivery of vacant possession of commercial units. Land and trespass appeals also come before the panel, including competing appeals over the use of an access road pending a land acquisition. The corpus reflects an appellate and apex-court judge whose reported work ranges comprehensively across the civil, administrative and constitutional fields, correcting the application of settled principle by the courts and tribunals below rather than retrying the disputes afresh, with the boundary between private rights and State power a recurring concern.