Intent and significance of Singapore Open Legal Information Database presented at its official launch
On 18 November 2025, Singapore’s first open empirical legal database, the Singapore Open Legal Informatics Database (SOLID), was officially launched with support from the Ministry of Law, Singapore. Housed at SMU’s Centre for Digital Law, the three-year initiative will compile and release machine-readable datasets containing key statistical information on Singapore court decisions, statutes, legal scholarship, and judicial structures. The project is led by Assistant Professor Jerrold Soh as Principal Investigator and Assistant Professor Dirk Hartung as Co-Investigator, with support from research engineers and student assistants from SMU.
Pictured is Assistant Professor Jerrold Soh presenting to the audience at the launch event. In his presentation, he highlighted that while Singapore’s legal system is internationally recognised for its openness and digital maturity, the availability of locally developed computational research and tools focused on Singapore law remains limited. He explained that SOLID aims to address this gap by establishing a key piece of legal data infrastructure that will create new opportunities to study, teach, and develop innovations for Singapore law. He also introduced the project’s vision, four-phase methodology, and the scope of the forthcoming machine-readable datasets, which will cover court decisions, statutes, legal scholarship, and judicial structures. Together with co-investigator Assistant Professor Dirk Hartung, the project team outlined how SOLID will empower researchers, policymakers, law firms, and legal technology developers to generate data-driven insights and advance innovation within Singapore’s legal ecosystem.
Pictured is Assistant Professor Jerrold Soh presenting to the audience at the launch event. In his presentation, he highlighted that while Singapore’s legal system is internationally recognised for its openness and digital maturity, the availability of locally developed computational research and tools focused on Singapore law remains limited. He explained that SOLID aims to address this gap by establishing a key piece of legal data infrastructure that will create new opportunities to study, teach, and develop innovations for Singapore law. He also introduced the project’s vision, four-phase methodology, and the scope of the forthcoming machine-readable datasets, which will cover court decisions, statutes, legal scholarship, and judicial structures. Together with co-investigator Assistant Professor Dirk Hartung, the project team outlined how SOLID will empower researchers, policymakers, law firms, and legal technology developers to generate data-driven insights and advance innovation within Singapore’s legal ecosystem.