We had a great start to the “Business and the Law” course, on the campus of the Singapore Management University.  Our classroom is just across the street from the main building of the SMU Law School.  The surrounding is marked by lush tropical vegetation even though we are in the middle of a city; or, as Singapore describes itself, “a city in a garden.”  Our course kicked off with a delightful orientation dinner at Violet Oon Restaurant at the National Gallery.  The food itself was already a cultural learning experience — Peranakan cuisine, associated with the unique culture and food of the descendants of Chinese immigrants who settled in the Malay archipelago several centuries ago and assimilated into the rest of the population.

Over the past few days, we have already had an engaging set of lectures by Professors Maartje DeVisser and Gary Wong about Singapore’s history and legal systems, Professor Jack Teo on the basics of business organizations, and Professor Lin Heng Lye about environmental law in Singapore and Asia.  One of my reactions – we are lucky to have gotten these great experts and teachers for the course!