Benny Tan Zhi Peng

Fellow

Benny Tan is Assistant Professor (Practice) at NUS Faculty of Law. He holds an LLB (NUS) and an MPhil in Criminological Research (Cambridge). He has prior experience as a Deputy Public Prosecutor, and as a defence counsel. Benny has taught legal skills courses to both undergraduate and graduate students, and currently teaches evidence law and criminal law. His research interests include criminal law (particularly on sentencing issues), law of evidence and criminal procedure, and statutory interpretation. He is the author of the textbook Foundations of Criminal Law in Singapore (Academy Publishing, 2022). He has also published articles in various peer-reviewed journals, and his work has been cited by the various courts in Singapore.

As a teacher, a non-negotiable contribution that I impose on myself is that I have to teach excellently, to ensure that each and every student of mine learns as effectively as possible. Where appropriate, I infuse my lessons with humour, and apply digital tools (such as screening YouTube videos) to capture my students’ attention and interest. I am also a very strong believer in balancing academic rigour and at the same time imparting to students industry-relevant and practical skills and also the competence to find for themselves the answer(s) to new problems and issues they encounter in future. I am especially conscious of the fact that a usual academic course in NUS spans only 12 teaching weeks, so what I am always more interested in is how to imbue in my students ongoing passion in the subject and independent learning ability well after they have completed my course. My philosophy as an academic is “Impactful teaching, impactful research”, and my promise to every student who attends my class is “Learn a lot, laugh a lot”.