Source of Malaysian Law

There are two sources that make up Malaysian law which are Written and unwritten law.

Sources of Written laws refers to:

-Federal constitution, the supreme law of Malaysia.

The federal of Malaysia which is made up by 13 states with a written constitution, e.g. Johor, Malaka, Negeri Sembilan, etc.

This is the highest constitution of Malaysia which enshrines the basic rights of the individual.

It means that the constitution must go through some procedures from parliament assembly, approved by Yang di-pertuan Agong and it become a written law in final. If it is not approved, it goes back to the procedures of parliament again, at least 2/3 of the total number of the member of legislature must agree with that, thereafter it is amended to be the written law to follow in Malaysia.

-State Constitution, the law to be applied in 13 states in the federal of Malaysia. Every state has its own constitution. The state constitution contains provisions which include the matters concerning the ruler of the state, the Executive council, the legislature, the legislative assembly,etc.

-Legislation, law enacted by a body constituted in Malaysia.

• Laws are enacted by parliament after 1946 and before 1957, called Ordinances.
• Laws made after 1957 are called Acts.
• Laws made in state legislative assemblies, called Enactments (Exclude Sarawak)
• Laws made in Sarawak state are called Ordinances.

-Subsidiary Legislation, it is important as legislation by parliament and State legislatures which is insufficient to provide law required to govern everyday matters. Subsidiary deals with the details about which legislature has neither the time nor the technical knowledge to enacts law. It is delegated by persons or bodies under power conferred on them by Acts of Parliament or enactment of state legislatures, e.g. Yang di-pertuan Agong, Minister, etc.

Sources of Unwritten law refers to:

-Principles of English Law that are only suitable to local circumstances.

-Judicial decisions by the superior courts, e.g. The supreme court, subordinate courts, etc.

Besides, Muslim law (syariah) refers to:

-It is only applicable to Muslims and from Syariah Courts. This is an important law since the majority religious groups are Muslims in Malaysia.

Doctrine of Stare Decisis:

-It holds that judges are bound to follow the decision made by other judges before they dealing with the cases with similiar fact.

Any cases that is in law suit, It must refer and review to the similar cases in the past before any judgement made.

Advantages of Doctrine of Stare Decisis: Since the cases are referring to the old similar cases to make a judgement, therefore it doesn't need to do double effort to study the cases anymore. It leads to high efficiency to judge one case.

Disadvantages of Doctrine of Stare Decisis: It is a must to trace one by one to look for the similiar cases. Thus, it consumes most time in searching.