Ministry of Law and SMU launch Singapore’s first open empirical legal database
The photograph, taken on 18 November 2025, features (from left to right) Mr Lim Joo Hong, Director of the Legal Technology Transformation Office, Ministry of Law ; and from SMU Yong Pung How School of Law (YPHSL), Assistant Professor Jerrold Soh, Professor Maartje De Visser and Associate Dean (Research) and Assistant Professor Dirk Hartung. They were at the launch of the Singapore Open Legal Informatics Database (SOLID), Singapore’s first open empirical legal database developed with the support of the Ministry of Law.
The half-day launch event brought together representatives from academia, government, the judiciary, and the private sector to explore how open legal data can advance research, drive innovation, and support evidence-based policymaking. Opening the event, Professor De Visser delivered a welcome remarks, followed by an address by Mr Lim Joo Hong. In his speech, Mr Lim highlighted SOLID as a major milestone in strengthening Singapore’s legal data infrastructure for the digital age and reinforcing the nation’s position as a leader in legal technology and innovation.
Assistant Professor Jerrold Soh, principal investigator of the project, presented the vision behind SOLID, outlining its four-phase methodology and the development of machine-readable datasets covering court decisions, legislation, legal scholarship, and judicial structures. Together with co-investigator Assistant Professor Dirk Hartung, he demonstrated how the database will serve as a valuable resource for researchers, policymakers, law firms, and legal technology developers, enabling new data-driven insights and innovations within the legal sector.
The half-day launch event brought together representatives from academia, government, the judiciary, and the private sector to explore how open legal data can advance research, drive innovation, and support evidence-based policymaking. Opening the event, Professor De Visser delivered a welcome remarks, followed by an address by Mr Lim Joo Hong. In his speech, Mr Lim highlighted SOLID as a major milestone in strengthening Singapore’s legal data infrastructure for the digital age and reinforcing the nation’s position as a leader in legal technology and innovation.
Assistant Professor Jerrold Soh, principal investigator of the project, presented the vision behind SOLID, outlining its four-phase methodology and the development of machine-readable datasets covering court decisions, legislation, legal scholarship, and judicial structures. Together with co-investigator Assistant Professor Dirk Hartung, he demonstrated how the database will serve as a valuable resource for researchers, policymakers, law firms, and legal technology developers, enabling new data-driven insights and innovations within the legal sector.