Singapore laws must keep pace with technologies yet to be invented: Edwin Tong

Singapore laws must keep pace with technologies yet to be invented: Edwin Tong The law minister said Singapore is no longer drafting laws only for today's technologies, giving examples of regulations that tackle fake news and cybercrime. SINGAPORE: Singapore's laws need to be able to stand the test of time and keep up with technologies that are not prevalent or have not yet been invented, Minister for Law Edwin Tong said on Wednesday (Jul 15). Addressing an audience of lawmakers at the 2026 Conference of the Commonwealth Association of Legislative Counsel, Mr Tong said the law "cannot remain static whilst technology evolves". "The law must keep pace with the world, and the world does not wait. New technologies emerge, new behaviours will take root in response to those new technologies, and unfortunately, new harms will appear," said the minister in a keynote speech at the conference. Singapore is therefore no longer drafting laws only for today's technologies, Mr Tong said, giving examples of how the country has developed laws such as the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act and the Online Criminal Harms Act to tackle fake news and cybercrime. "We have to ensure that our laws can stand the test of time, even for technologies that perhaps might not be invented today or not prevalent today." The conference, a biennial event in its 17th edition, brought together lawmakers for discussions on legislative drafting amid evolving legal and socio-political landscapes. Held in Singapore for the first time, more than 200 delegates from over 40 jurisdictions attended the three-day event. The delegates include legislative drafters from national and regional drafting offices, judges and government legal advisers. This year's theme is “Legislating in a Changing World”, with topics ranging from the use of artificial intelligence tools by drafting offices, effective management of government legislative pipelines, and drafting legislation to support digital decision-making. In his opening remarks at the conference, Singapore's Attorney-General Lucien Wong said the participants were meeting at a time of "profound change in the world", including demographic changes, changes in technology and changes to the international order. "Our laws must keep up with these changes while remaining clear, accessible and faithful to foundational principles of responsible government and of the rule of law. "As guardians of the statute book, law drafters have an indispensable role to play in how each of you, each of our legal systems, adapt to a changing world," Mr Wong said. In his speech, Mr Tong set out Singapore's history as a multiracial country with scarce land, requiring legislation such as the Maintenance of Religious Harmony Act and the Maintenance of Racial Harmony Act to preserve harmony and strengthen its social compact. He then pointed to the Land Acquisition Act as an example of how legislation has adapted to the needs of society. The Land Acquisition Act enabled land to be assembled for major public purposes, including public housing, key transport nodes and critical infrastructure such as schools and hospitals, Mr Tong said. "Our physical transformation was never simply the product of good planning or just good engineering alone. It was also made possible by good legislation," he added. He noted that legislation of this nature required balancing different needs, such as the rights of individuals to own private property and the broader public interest in ensuring that scarce land can be used to meet national needs across different generations. To this end, drafters had to anticipate "how the legislation would operate not just on the day of enactment, but decades into the future". EVOLVING ONLINE THREATS Mr Tong also pointed to Singapore's legislative responses to threats from the online space, including laws on online falsehoods, criminal harms, scam prevention and online safety. While technology has transformed lives for the better, it has also changed the nature of harm, with falsehoods able to circle the globe in minutes, Mr Tong said. He gave the examples of AI-generated deepfakes, doxxing and scammers who target victims beyond their countries. Cybercrime cost US$1 trillion (S$1.29 trillion) per year worldwide in 2020, with the figure projected to increase to US$1 trillion per month by 2031, Mr Tong said, citing statistics from cyber economy researcher Cybersecurity Ventures. In Singapore, there were more than 37,000 scam cases in 2025, with losses exceeding S$900 million. In response, Singapore developed a "suite of legislative responses" to address different dimensions of the problem, Mr Tong said. For example, he noted that scammers today employ highly sophisticated psychological manipulation, with more than 80 per cent of scam reports involving victims who authorise the transfers themselves. The Protection from Scams Act therefore allows police, in defined circumstances, to temporarily restrict certain banking transactions when a person is believed to be at imminent risk of being scammed. Meanwhile, an independent Online Safety Commission was established under the Online Safety (Relief and Accountability) Act to provide victims with a faster and more accessible avenue to seek the removal of harmful content or the disabling of offending accounts. While the legal issues might be different, they share the common philosophy that the law cannot remain static while technology evolves, Mr Tong said. To this end, Mr Tong said legislative drafters have to combine different disciplines, reconciling competing interests, and translating complex policy into legislation that is effective and flexible. Ultimately, societies look to their laws to reflect their "values, provide certainty and command public confidence", he said. "You are entrusted not just with drafting; it is not just with the pen, but with ensuring that the law gives faithful effect to policy, that it works well and fairly in practice, and that it stands the test of time," said Mr Tong.