The Common Law And The English Law In Malaysia

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1.0Introduction
In Malaysia, the law is commonly derived from the English law which compromises of local law and laws of England which includes legislation, common law and rules of equity, and was applied in Malaysia through the doctrine of reception. It has England as its prototype and shares substantial heritage with the common law (Shamrahayu A Aziz, 2009). The common law is the body of rules emerged by the old common law courts which is the Court of Exchequer, Court of Common Pleas and Court of King’s Bench (Teacher, 2013). The common law was applied in England and is based on the customs throughout England. It is also the unwritten law of England based on the decisions of the courts. Likewise, Equity is the body of rules developed in …show more content…

In Article 160 of Federal Constitution, it implies the meaning of law where it states that ‘the common law in so far as it is in operation in the Federation or any part thereof’ which concerns on extent to which the English law is applicable in Malaysia (teacher, 2013). In Malaysia, English law can be found in the Civil Law Act 1956 (Act 67) (Revised 1972) (CLA 1956) under section 3 of the Act, where under the Act, English law is defined as 'the common law of England and the rules of equity' (Wan Arfah Hamzah, 2009). According to Farid Sufian Shuhaib (n.d.), in his journal ‘Towards Malaysian Common Law: Convergence between Indigenous Norms and Common Law Method’ emphasized that “The predecessors of the Civil Law Act 1956, namely the various Ordinances and enactments, had served well the British imperialist in Malaya and Borneo. They provide a semblance of legitimacy to things the British had done and continue to do, namely imposing their law on the colony. They also have served well a newly independent Malaya and Malaysia in providing continuity and stability to her fragile legal system that suffered' the onslaught of imperialist law and political might”. Common law and equity had left such a lasting bequest of legal system and laws due to the conflicting opinion in interpreting the First Charter of Justice granted to Penang in 1807 during the British colonization of

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