Legal System and Construction Law

This study material from Desklib covers the Malaysian legal system, building regulations and Highland Tower case laws. It explains the mixed law system of Malaysia, dual justice system, Malaysian judiciary system, federal laws, and more. It also discusses the purpose of UBBL, agencies in issuing by-laws, and the use of UBBL during site planning and design stages. The Highland Tower case laws and their holdings or decisions of the judges are also covered in detail.

Legal System and Construction Law

Table of Contents
1. Malaysian legal system..........................................................................................................................3
2. Malaysia building regulations...............................................................................................................5
3. Three Highland Tower case laws..........................................................................................................8
References................................................................................................................................................10
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1. Malaysian legal system
The Malaysian legal system is majorly based upon the legal system of common law. It
determines the Monarch, Government, their potentials and the authorities of the citizens.
i] Mixed law system of Malaysia
The legal system of Malaysia has been divided into two categories namely- written and unwritten
laws. Common law comes under the category of unwritten law which is not enclosed into any
figure. These laws can be raised in case decisions. When the situation comes, where there is no
act administrating a particular situation, Common law is applied there (Aldohni 2012).
Malaysia practices a mixed system of law that consist of Islamic law, Customary law and
Common law. There are 2 sources of law of Malaysia namely written and unwritten law. Written
law, being the most important law, comprises of Subsidiary Legislation, State Constitutions,
Legislation, and Federal Constitution. The unwritten law comprises of Judicial decision, English
law, and customs. The third and last source of the Malaysian legal system is Muslim law which
is relevant to Muslims only (Hoffstaedter 2013, 475-489).
ii] Dual justice system
The dual justice system is a part of Article 121(1A) of the Malaysian constitution. Islamic law
comes under State law in Malaysia which is known as Sharia law. This law plays a minor role in
determining the laws of the country. Moreover, this law is applicable to Muslims only. The court
of Sharia law has power over personal matters including apostasy, inheritance, and marriage.
In August 2007, a proposal of replacing the common law with Sharia law of Malaysia was kept
by the Malaysian chief justice (Marzuki et al. 2012, 585-602)
iii] Malaysian judiciary system
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The hierarchy of the judiciary system of Malaysia starts from the Magistrates’ court. The
Sessions court follows the pattern. Then comes High court. Court of Appeal is the next and at
last, there is the Federal court.
The chief justice of Malaysia stands at the highest position of the Malaysian Judiciary system.
Court of Appeal’s president follows next, followed by Malaysian chief justice and the chief
judge of Sarawak and Sabah at last.
Principles of stare decisis
● A choice made by a prevalent court, or by a similar court in a prior choice, is a restricting
point of reference that the court itself and all its mediocre courts must pursue.
● A court may topple its own point of reference, yet ought to do as such just if a solid
reason exists to do as such, and even, all things considered, ought to be guided by
standards from unrivaled, sidelong, and second rate courts.
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iv] Importance of constitution of Malaysia
● It provides ways to solve problems
● It ensures the sustainability of Malaysia
● It also ensures the stability and peace of Malaysia (Harding 2012).
v] Federal laws
Federal laws are constructed by the members of the Parliament(legislators) sitting in Malaysian
parliament and are applicable nationwide. These laws are also termed as Acts of parliament.
Parliament system of Malaysia
Being National Malaysian legislature, it is based upon Westminster system. The parliament
gathers in House of Parliament of Malaysia. These are bicameral.
vi] State law
State laws are constructed by the the people siitting in State Legislative assembly(assemblymen).
These laws are only applicable in a particular state.
State legislative assembly of Malaysia
It is the legislative arm of state governments of the thirteen states of Malaysia. These are
unicameral.
2. Malaysia building regulations
Fire Safety in Museum Buildings: A Case Study of Perak Museum, Taiping, Malaysia
(i) Project introduction
This case was regarding a National Heritage building in Asian country, named as perak
museum with relation to UBBL1984, which includes fire safety acts 1988 under it. Perak
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museum was built in 1883 in Taiping, which later on became the government offices.
There were 3 more gallery which was later constructed in the building. (Salleh, Nurul
and A. Ghafar 2017, 6242-6246).
In the initial, phase the museum in renovated government offices. In 1833, it was under
construction particularly the main building of Neo-classical design. (Mey, Lau Pei, and
Badaruddin 2010, 226-240).
(ii) The purpose of UBBL
The purpose of UBBL is to ensure all the safety measures included in the act like fire
safety measure. The UBBL needs to keep an eye upon the proper conduct and
enforcement of the building according to the rules, one of which is to provide with fire
detection and protection systems in heritage buildings (Ahmad et al. 2011, 188-192).
They are required to give proper training and authority to regulate such accidents by
frequently conducting fire campaigns to extend awareness in the public. UBBL has the
power to amend or reviews legislation regarding these matters. They need to ensure that
proper procedure has been followed up from the starting of the construction of building.
It may be from submission of approval to constructional requirements of the building
(Fadzil et al. 2009).
(iii) The agencies in issuing by-laws
The UBBL is enforced in Malaysia by local authorities and is applicable to them as well.
For Kuala Lumpur, Labuan and Putrajaya the state authority I.e Ministry of Federal
Territory is being considered (Saji 2012, 140)
(iv) The use of UBBL during site planning stage for the selected building project
The planning stage of UBBL consists of structural, local and area plans under Part III of
the TCPA (TCPA, 1976). These are coded to provide guidance over the process of
current and future planning (Said et al. 2013, 418-428). It is mainly focuses on public
facilities requirements, roads, open spaces, building setbacks, number of car parks etc.
For the approval of such the pan must fit according to the layout and later is submitted to
native authorities of the concern state (Dian, Azni, and Nuraisyah 2013, 248-255).
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(v) Use of UBBL during design stage for the selected building project
According to the UBBL Part II, III, V, VII, VIII and IX and the important clauses, the
sketch of the design must be submitted to local authority with the purpose of the plan
mentioned for further approval. It should consist of details of water point, distance from
street and centre, adjoining building with the certification of qualified person
accompanied by fee (Kamaruzzaman, Syahrul and Nursyahida 2014, 1-15). Notice may
be given to owner having its roof in open space to restore it. The design must take care of
lighting , ventilation , flooring , staircase handles with proper basement , parking and
many more things especially while constructing school or hospital. There should not be
any hazardous thing close to building areas (Yiing 2013, 120-129)
3. Three Highland Tower case laws
(i) Title and citations: List the name of the case, the citation and the year
The Highland Towers collapse occured in an apartment building as a results of a
significant landslide on eleven December 1993. The incident occurred in, Taman
Hillview, Ulu Klang, in Selangor, Malaysia. The collapse concerned Block one of the
Highland Towers, leading to the deaths of forty eight folks and crystal rectifier to the
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entire evacuation of the remaining 2 blocks because of safety concerns (Aini and
Fakhru’l-Razi 2013, 284-292).
The Highland Towers incorporates similar three 13-story blocks, developed in the phase
between 1974 and 1982. It is situated at the western base of a steeply slanted hill that was
later terraced broadly in the beginning of 1980s. These towers were residences to well off
families; a section of the residents was refugees (Eng 2013)
Citation- Highland Towers collapse. (Kazmi et al. 2017)
(ii) Identify the key terms used to describe the parties (at court of first instance and
after an appeal)
Plaintiff and appellant are used to describe the parties
(iii) The holdings or decisions of the judges
The Federal Court has ruled that Local councils is not liable for losses that occurred due
to the collapse. They a foresaid native authorities like the MPAJ got full immunity
underneath Section ninety five (2) of the Road, Drainage & Building Act 1974 (Act
133) (Saji 2012, 140).
Justice Abdul Hamid Mohamad aforesaid that if the native councils were created liable, it
would for further claims open the floodgates for dealing with economic loss. He also said
that "The MPAJ couldn't request shelter under Section 95(2) of the Road, Drainage and
Building Act. The reason being in this case a negligence has occurred in implementation
and formulation of master evacuation plan (Hussein and Naziaty 2012, 121-133).
In 2000, James Foong, High Court Judge ruled for the 73, and provided the following
specifications for liability: Metrolux and MBf Property Services together 20%, Arab-
Malaysian 30%, Highland Properties 15%, MPAJ 15%, draughtsman Wong Ting San
100% and engineer Wong Yuen Edmund Kean 100% (Tey 2010).
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References
Ahmad, H., M. Y. Fadlie, N. A. Yahaya, and J. Abu. 2011. "The means of escaping for
occupants for renovation works of terrace houses in Malaysia." Procedia Engineering 20 (May):
188-192.
Aini, M. S., and A. Fakhru’l-Razi. 2013. "Latent errors of socio-technical disasters: A Malaysian
case study." Safety science51, no. 1 (January): 284-292.
Aldohni, Abdul Karim. The legal and regulatory aspects of Islamic banking: a comparative look
at the United Kingdom and Malaysia. Routledge, 2012.
Dian, Azni Mohd, and Nuraisyah Chua Abdullah. 2013. "Public participation in heritage sites
conservation in Malaysia: Issues and challenges." Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences101
(February): 248-255.
Eng, C. G. 2013. "When Abused Women Get Away with Murder: Law, Justice and Truth in
three English-language Malaysian Novels by Women." Asiatic: IIUM Journal of English
Language & Literature 7, no. 1 (August).
Fadzil, Sharifah Fairuz Syed, Adel Abdullah, and Wan Mariah Wan Harun. 2009. "The Impact
of Varied Orientation and Wall Window Ratio (WWR) To Daylight Distribution in Residental
Rooms." In International Symposium on Construction in Developing Economies. April.
Harding, Andrew. The constitution of Malaysia: a contextual analysis. Bloomsbury Publishing,
2012.
Hoffstaedter, Gerhard. "Secular state, religious lives: Islam and the state in Malaysia." Asian
Ethnicity 14, no. 4 (2013): 475-489.
Hussein, Hazreena, and Naziaty Mohd Yaacob. 2012 "Development of accessible design in
Malaysia." Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences 68 (August): 121-133.
Kamaruzzaman, Syahrul Nizam, and Nursyahida Zulkifli. 2014. "Measures for building lighting
performance in Malaysian historical buildings: A systematic review." Journal of Surveying,
Construction and Property 5, no. 1 (November): 1-15.
Kazmi, Danish, Sadaf Qasim, I. S. H. Harahap, and Syed Baharom. 2017 "Landslide of Highland
Towers 1993: a case study of Malaysia." Innovative Infrastructure Solutions 2, no. 1 (April): 21.
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Marzuki, Azizan, Iain Hay, and Jane James. "Public participation shortcomings in tourism
planning: the case of the Langkawi Islands, Malaysia." Journal of Sustainable Tourism20, no. 4
(2012): 585-602.
Mey, Lau Pei, and Badaruddin Mohamed. 2010. "Service quality, visitor satisfaction and
behavioural intentions: Pilot study at a museum in Malaysia." Journal of Global Business and
Economics 1, no. 1 (June): 226-240.
Said, Shahrul Yani, Hasnizan Aksah, and Elma Dewiyana Ismail. 2013. "Heritage conservation
and regeneration of historic areas in Malaysia." Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences105
(June): 418-428.
Saji, Nurdalila Binti. 2012 "A review of Malaysian terraced house design and the tendency of
changing." Journal of Sustainable Development 5, no. 5 (January): 140.
Saji, Nurdalila Binti. 2012. "A review of Malaysian terraced house design and the tendency of
changing." Journal of Sustainable Development 5, no. 5 (August): 140.
Salleh, N. H., and A. G. Ahmad. 2009. "Fire safety management in heritage buildings: The
current scenario in Malaysia." In 22nd CIPA Symposium. June:4-6.
Salleh, Nurul Hamiruddin, and A. Ghafar Ahmad. 2017. "Fire Safety in Museum Buildings: A
Case Study of Perak Museum, Taiping, Malaysia." Advanced Science Letters 23, no. 7
(September): 6242-6246.
Tey, Tsun Hang. 2010 "Public interest litigation in Malaysia: Executive control and careful
negotiation of the frontiers of judicial review." In Public Interest Litigation in Asia, pp. 86-104.
Routledge,June.
Yiing, Chua Fuh, Naziaty Mohd Yaacob, and Hazreena Hussein. 2013. "Achieving sustainable
development: accessibility of green buildings in Malaysia." Procedia-Social and Behavioral
Sciences 101 (August): 120-129.
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