Singapore is set for a major change to its Supreme Court bench, with Justice Hoo Sheau Peng appointed to the Court of Appeal and Senior Counsel Goh Yihan appointed as a Judge of the Appellate Division.
Both appointments will take effect on October 1, 2026, following appointments by President Tharman Shanmugaratnam under Singapore’s constitutional framework.
Justice Hoo, currently a High Court judge, was first appointed Judicial Commissioner in 2014 before becoming a High Court judge in 2017. She has handled criminal, family and public law matters, as well as civil cases involving areas including company law, insolvency, trusts and intellectual property.
Since September 2023, Justice Hoo has also served as Judge-in-Charge of the General Division of the High Court, where she has assisted with the administration of the division. Her earlier legal career included more than two decades in Singapore’s Legal Service, including senior roles in the State Courts and Attorney-General’s Chambers.
Goh Yihan, meanwhile, will move from his current position as Deputy Attorney-General to the Appellate Division. He joined academia after beginning his legal career at the Supreme Court and later served as dean of the SMU Yong Pung How School of Law before returning to the judiciary.
Goh was appointed Judicial Commissioner in 2022 and became a High Court judge in October 2023. He became Deputy Attorney-General in January 2025, overseeing the Civil Division of the Attorney-General’s Chambers, the Advocacy Group and the International Legal Cooperation Team.
The appointments will also reshape the composition of Singapore’s Supreme Court. Once they take effect, the bench will comprise 32 judges, including the Chief Justice, four Justices of the Court of Appeal, five Judges of the Appellate Division, 16 High Court judges, one Judicial Commissioner and five Senior Judges, alongside 26 International Judges.
The moves come during a year of continuing changes within Singapore’s judiciary. In July, the appointment of Justice Sushil Nair as a Justice of the Court of Appeal was announced, while Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon’s retirement and Justice Nair’s future appointment as Chief Justice from February 2027 have also been announced.
The latest appointments place two experienced legal figures in Singapore’s appellate courts at a time when the country’s highest courts continue to handle increasingly complex commercial, constitutional, civil and criminal matters.
The bigger change will become clearer after October 1, when the new appointments formally take effect and Singapore’s appellate bench enters its next phase.
