Prior to colonization by western powers, a form of rudimentary, tribal legal system was said to exist on the Peninsula. Various aboriginal tribes had been in occupation of the Peninsula as well as Borneo long before foreign settlers arrived. Although their laws were primitive and unwritten, their organizational abilities were adequate and served as a model for later Malay villages or kampongs. For example, the head of the village or penghulu was an organizational social structure derived from the Negrito tribe. The penghulu of any village or kampong usually had full civil and criminal powers over his flock.

Islamic banking is the conduct of banking according to Shariah or Islamic law. Statistically Islamic banking has had phenomenal growth, according to the Asian Banker Research Group, the world's 100 largest Islamic banks have set an annual asset growth rate of 26.7% and the global Islamic finance industry is experiencing an average growth of 15-20% annually. Recently the Prime Minister of Malaysia commented that Malaysia has been maintaining its leadership in Islamic banking and finance for over three decades. As an International leader in Islamic banking, it would be interesting to explore the development of Islamic banking in Malaysia. This will be the objective of this paper. This paper will focus on the historical development of Islamic banking in Malaysia, from the creation of the Haj Pilgrim's Fund Board in the 1960s to the current Islamic banking scene of 17 local Islamic banks and five International Islamic banks in operation. This paper will also explore the unique regulatory and governance framework of Islamic banking in Malaysia, by touching on the Islamic banking Act 1983, the Central Bank of Malaysia Act 2009, the Banking and Financial Institutions Act 1989 and the Shariah Governance Framework introduced in 2011 by the Central Bank of Malaysia. This paper will also briefly introduce how Islamic banking works.

Current sectoral practices in ocean governance are insufficient to meet the needs of the next decade where the safety and security of navigation in clean and healthy oceans is a priority without compromising the political independence, integrity and security of the nation. The Ocean Law, Policy and Strategic Framework in Malaysia can be said to be a journey of a 1000 miles of which we have currently embarked on a few steps. There are many factors that play an important role in ocean governance such as government commitment, and institutional and human resource capacity. This paper identifies the lacunae in current legal framework and concludes with some pointers for ocean governance purposes to avoid irreversible trends. For the next decade, one way forward to sustainably develop the living resources of the oceans lies in the adoption of an eco-system based approach to oceans management and for the rest of the challenges a cross-sectoral approach may prove effective.

The first cyberlaws of Malaysia were passed in 1997 and Malaysia has been hailed as one of the first ASEAN countries to have done so. Since then, there have been various amendments to current legislation to adapt to Internet situations, and new cyberlaws have been passed, such as the Electronic Commerce Act 2006 (Act 658) and the Personal Data Protection Act 2010 (Act 709). This paper will give an overview of these laws relating to the Internet.

Of late, particularly since the inception of the Convention on Biological Diversity (“CBD”), there has been some recognition of the relevance of biological resources and the need to protect and conserve these resources for the benefit of humankind. Natural disasters which have been occurring around the world, such as the recent earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand, the 2009 earthquake in Haiti, the floods in Pakistan and the mystery surrounding the fallen dead birds from the sky en masse in Arkansas have raised concerns on the state of the environment in which we live in today. The resultant long-term effects of such natural disasters is colossal to the inhabitants of mother Earth although those who are not directly affected by such disasters are rarely of the view that they have, in some way, contributed to the happenings of such disasters. In Europe and parts of America, winter temperatures plummeted towards the end of 2010 recording some of the lowest temperatures in history whilst in the southern hemisphere, cyclones and floods have plagued Australia thereby giving rise to prophecies that perhaps, the world may be coming to an end.