judges of the Court of Criminal Appeal were not unanimous in their decision. These changes came shortly after the Privy Council restored a prominent opposition Member of Parliament, Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam, to the roll of advocates and solicitors of the Supreme Court of Singapore after he had been struck off for a criminal conviction for making false statements in a statutory declaration; the court described the conviction as "a grievous injustice". In 1993, the previous set-up of a separate Court of Appeal and Court of Criminal Appeal was done away with, and in their place a unified Court of Appeal was constituted for both civil and criminal appeals. Judges of Appeal appointed to the Court of Appeal were no longer required to engage in High Court work. The Chief Justice sat as the President of the Court of Appeal. The establishment of the permanent Court of Appeal paved the way for the abolition of all appeals to the Privy Council with effect from 8 April 1994. Following this, the Court of Appeal issued a Practice Statement dated 11 July 1994, stating that while the Court would treat its own prior decisions and those of the Privy Council as normally binding, where it appeared that adherence to such decisions "would cause injustice in a particular case or constrain the development of the law in conformity with the circumstances of Singapore" it would regard itself as free to depart from such decisions. It added that this power would be exercised sparingly, bearing in mind the danger of retrospectively disturbing contractual, proprietary and other legal rights. Today, the Court of Appeal of Singapore is the highest court in the land. The independent status of Singapore's legal system was underlined by the repeal of section 5 of the Civil Law Act (see above) on 12 November 1993 by the Application of English Law Act 1993. The Act aims to clarify the extent of the application of English law in Singapore. It states that the common law of England (including the principles and rules of equity), so far as it was part of the law of Singapore immediately before the commencement of the Act, continues to be part of Singapore law so far as it is applicable to the circumstances of Singapore and its inhabitants and subject to such modifications as those circumstances may require. As for English statutes, only those that are listed in