WHEN I joined the legal and judicial service in 1970, the notion of a specialised court was evidently not in our leaders’ minds.
At that point in time, there were government and private lawyers. The former were deputy public prosecutors (DPP), federal counsels (FC), and state legal advisors (SLA). Government departments and ministries then did not have their own legal advisers. If they needed legal advice, their officers had to go to where I was then serving — the Attorney-General’s Chambers in Jalan Raja, where they would be attended to by our officers in the advisory section.
If law graduates joining the government service did not get appointed as DPPs, FCs or SLAs, they would be appointed as magistrates or sessions judges. In due time they might be elevated to High Court judges.
Then, as it is now, if law graduates had no wish to become government lawyers, they could get themselves called to the Malaysian Bar (after a period of internship with senior lawyers) and become advocates and solicitors (legal practitioners). If, however, legal practice is not their cup of tea, they can seek employment as legal officers in companies, banks, statutory bodies, etc. A handful of my contemporaries chose neither of these options because their interest was either in education or politics.
Aside from our subordinate courts (the magistrate and sessions courts), our judiciary (the superior courts) has three tiers — the High Court, the Court of Appeal and the Federal Court. There are actually two high courts in Malaysia — the High Court for Malaya and the High Court for Sabah and Sarawak, each headed by a chief judge. The Court of Appeal is headed by the President of the Court of Appeal, whilst the apex court is headed by the chief justice. My non-lawyer friends frequently get confused between the head of the High Court and the head of the Federal Court; they say the old title “Lord President” for the Federal Court is easier to remember.
Over the last four decades, various specialised courts have been set up by the government. What does it mean for future lawyers? It means, just as in other professions, the learning never stops. Future lawyers (future would-be judges) must be prepared to acquire further specialised and advanced knowledge in a variety of new legal fields.
Specialisation usually becomes necessary at the high court level. For example, when the government establishes “special courts” such as the Construction Court recently or special tribunals like the Homebuyers Claims Tribunal (in 2002), they are headed by people who are either high court judges or who are eligible to become high court judges. When the new Strata Management Act 2013 (Act 757) and the Strata Management Tribunal Regulations 2015 set up the new Strata Management Tribunal to deal with the growing number of strata disputes, it is also presided by people who have a similar legal background.
When the government established the special Intellectual Property Court in 2007, it was responding to complaints from the international community that it had not done enough to improve IP rights enforcement in the country. Malaysia was then placed on the international watchlist because of the high number of IP violations and infringements of copyright material. The specialised court was set up to reduce the backlog of IP cases in the courts. IP criminal cases were then heard in the Sessions Court whilst IP civil cases were heard at the Kuala Lumpur High Court.
Four years later, in February 2011, 18 special courts for corruption cases were established. These courts, named Corruption Sessions Courts and Corruption High Courts, were necessary to speed up the hearing of corruption cases.
On Sept 1, 2016, the newly-
established Cyber Court had its first sitting at the Kuala Lumpur court complex in Jalan Duta. Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said told reporters that the court was established to deal with offences such as online gambling, spying, bank fraud, defamation, document falsification and pornography. Some 27 judges had undergone an in-depth training programme in cyber crimes. The court would first focus on criminal cases and subsequently hear civil cases as well.
I am reminded of all this past trend in specialisation recently when I read the news of the setting up of a specialised human trafficking court, to be headed by a sessions judge (NST, Jan 12). Chief Justice Tun Md Raus Sharif was quoted as saying that there was a need to establish the court because of the drastic increase in such cases of late. He said that “based on our experience, specialised courts do better (in solving a case) than normal courts”. The new special court is expected to begin operation in May or June with the first one in Klang, followed by Ipoh, Melaka, Muar, Kota Kinabalu and Balik Pulau.
The chief justice also told the media that a timeline of one year has been set for the Special Court for Sexual Crimes Against Children. This new court, set up last April, had so far dealt with 287 cases (of the 357 filed in court) within six months. Twelve other such courts will be built, in phases, by the end of this year.
The special human trafficking court will probably not be the last specialised court in the country. More specialised courts can be expected in the future and sitting judges should be prepared to go back to their law lectures when they are called up to fill the newly-created positions for the courts.
That leaves me with the question — when can we expect to see a specialised land court or land tribunal?
Salleh Buang formerly served the Attorney-General’s Chambers before he left for practice, the corporate sector and, then, the academia