Lionel Astor Sheridan

Lionel Astor "Lee" Sheridan (born 21 July 1927) is a former educator and academic who served as the first Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Malaya, and its successor universities, in Singapore. He has been considered the "Father of Legal Education in Malaya".

Early life and education

Lionel Astor Sheridan was born on 21 July 1927 in Croydon, Surrey, to Stanley Frederick Sheridan and Anne Quednan. He was educated at Whitgift School, and had at seventeen planned to enter Pembroke College, Cambridge, and study English and French literature. However, he changed his mind and began studying for a Bachelor of Laws degree at the University of London instead, graduating in 1947. In the next year, he was called to the bar.

After being called to the bar, he planned to study for a PhD at the University of London, and began teaching part-time as an Assistant Lecturer at the University of Nottingham to cover tuition costs. In 1949, he was given a lectureship at Queen's University Belfast and subsequently transferred his doctoral candidacy there. At Queen's, his doctoral supervisor was J. L. Montrose.

Sheridan's doctoral thesis, 'Fraud in Equity', was published and received some amount of critical acclaim.

Academic career

In July 1956, Sheridan and his family arrived in Singapore, and he immediately set about his task of creating a Faculty of Law at the University of Malaya, as recommended by Roland Braddell and R. G. D. Allen in a report commissioned by the university. Sheridan's first lecture was on 19 October 1956.

As Dean of the new faculty, Sheridan set about hiring a wide range of academic staff, and the early faculty included:

• Chua Boon Lan, a Singaporean lawyer who served as Sheridan's "principal assistant"
• Alice Tay, future professor at the University of Sydney
• John Tan Chor Yong
• Harry Wee
• David Marshall, former Chief Minister of Singapore
• Edmund W. Barker, former Minister of Law
• Tan Boon Teik, former Attorney-General of Singapore
• Punch Coomaraswamy, later a judge on the Supreme Court of Singapore
• Bernard Brown, future professor at the University of Auckland

Following the creation of an academic staff, Sheridan's first graduating class was in 1961. Despite his English background, Sheridan believed it was necessary to design the course so it was relevant to the local culture, and in 1960 stated that "success has been achieved in introducing a syllabus adapted to Malayan needs". He ensured that only English legal history which was relevant to Malayan law would be covered in classes, and focused on local customary law within his own work.

Sheridan's views on education differed from those that were mainstream at the time: he began teaching the Socratic method to his students, and argued that "examinations should test ability to argue from available legal materials and not the ability to remember what materials are available". Alongside this was Sheridan's insistence that students learn the philosophical premises of the law, with a mandatory reading of legal theory and philosophy.

The law library

As early as 1957, Sheridan had set about creating a law library for the newly formed faculty to use. A report published by Sheridan in that year stated "we have almost a complete library of Malayan law though lacking some of the more ancient reports". He began subscribing to a range of periodicals from around the world, and made use of local lawyers and experts to source materials for the library.

University of Malaya Law Review

As a way of spreading legal information throughout Singapore, he created the University of Malaya Law Review journal (later the Malaya Law Review and now the Singapore Journal of Legal Studies) in 1960. He had hoped the journal would become "important all over the world", and called its creation his "proudest achievement". Sheridan had retired as editor of the journal by its third volume, and was succeeded by Geoffrey Wilson Bartholomew.

Later career

In May 1963, Sheridan left Singapore and returned to Belfast and became Professor of Comparative Laws at Queen's. In June 1963, the newly formed University of Singapore conferred on him an honorary Doctor of Laws degree.

He was instrumental in the creation of the Law Faculty at University College Cardiff. In March 1987, he became acting principal of the college, following C. W. L. Bevan's pre-retirement sabbatical leave. During this period, the college was facing high levels of debt and Sheridan was left to attempt to solve the issue by asking staff for short-term loans.

Personal life

On 1 June 1948, Sheridan married Margaret Helen Béghin: in 1984 they had a daughter (Linda Anne) and a son (Peter Louis). Margaret assisted him in entertaining staff and students, and also edited parts of his work.

Selected works

Andrew Phang refers to over 170 works published by Sheridan, of which the following are a selection:

Books

Title	Time of first publication	First edition publisher/publication	Unique identifier	Notes
Elementary Law - An Introduction for the Malayan Citizen	1957		OCLC 9203351	Co-written with Tan Boon Teik
The Cy-Près Doctrine	1959	Sweet & Maxwell	OCLC 10722807	Co-written with V. T. H. Delany
Malaya and Singapore, The Borneo Territories, The Development of their Laws and Constitutions	1961	Stevens & Sons	OCLC 971389006
The Modern Law of Charities	1992	Barry Rose	OCLC 27144375	Co-edited with George W. Keeton

Articles

Title	Time of publication	Publication	Unique identifier	Notes
"Federation of Malaya Constitution"	1959	University of Malaya Law Review	JSTOR 24874705
"The Repatriation of the Common Law"	1965	Current Legal Problems