Prior to colonization by western powers, a form of rudimentary, tribal legalsystem was said to exist on the Peninsula. Various aboriginal tribes hadbeen in occupation of the Peninsula as well as Borneo long before foreignsettlers arrived. Although their laws were primitive and unwritten, theirorganizational abilities were adequate and served as a model for later Malayvillages or kampongs. For example, the head of the villageor penghulu was an organizational social structure derivedfrom the Negrito tribe. The penghulu ofany village or kampong usually had full civil and criminalpowers over his flock.

Islamic banking is the conduct of banking according to Shariah or Islamiclaw. Statistically Islamic banking has had phenomenal growth, according tothe Asian Banker Research Group, the world's 100 largest Islamic banks haveset an annual asset growth rate of 26.7% and the global Islamic financeindustry is experiencing an average growth of 15-20% annually. Recently thePrime Minister of Malaysia commented that Malaysia has been maintaining itsleadership in Islamic banking and finance for over three decades. As anInternational leader in Islamic banking, it would be interesting to explorethe development of Islamic banking in Malaysia. This will be the objectiveof this paper. This paper will focus on the historical development ofIslamic banking in Malaysia, from the creation of the Haj Pilgrim's FundBoard in the 1960s to the current Islamic banking scene of 17 local Islamicbanks and five International Islamic banks in operation. This paper willalso explore the unique regulatory and governance framework of Islamicbanking in Malaysia, by touching on the Islamic banking Act 1983, theCentral Bank of Malaysia Act 2009, the Banking and Financial InstitutionsAct 1989 and the Shariah Governance Framework introduced in 2011 by theCentral Bank of Malaysia. This paper will also briefly introduce how Islamicbanking works.

Current sectoral practices in ocean governance are insufficient to meet theneeds of the next decade where the safety and security of navigation inclean and healthy oceans is a priority without compromising the politicalindependence, integrity and security of the nation. The Ocean Law, Policyand Strategic Framework in Malaysia can be said to be a journey of a 1000miles of which we have currently embarked on a few steps. There are manyfactors that play an important role in ocean governance such as governmentcommitment, and institutional and human resource capacity. This paperidentifies the lacunae in current legal framework and concludes with somepointers for ocean governance purposes to avoid irreversible trends. For thenext decade, one way forward to sustainably develop the living resources ofthe oceans lies in the adoption of an eco-system based approach to oceansmanagement and for the rest of the challenges a cross-sectoral approach mayprove effective.

The first cyberlaws of Malaysia were passed in 1997 and Malaysia has beenhailed as one of the first ASEAN countries to have done so. Since then,there have been various amendments to current legislation to adapt toInternet situations, and new cyberlaws have been passed, such as theElectronic Commerce Act 2006 (Act 658) and the Personal Data Protection Act2010 (Act 709). This paper will give an overview of these laws relating tothe Internet.

Of late, particularly since the inception of the Convention on BiologicalDiversity (“CBD”), there has been some recognition of therelevance of biological resources and the need to protect and conserve theseresources for the benefit of humankind. Natural disasters which have beenoccurring around the world, such as the recent earthquake in Christchurch,New Zealand, the 2009 earthquake in Haiti, the floods in Pakistan and themystery surrounding the fallen dead birds from the sky en masse in Arkansashave raised concerns on the state of the environment in which we live intoday. The resultant long-term effects of such natural disasters is colossalto the inhabitants of mother Earth although those who are not directlyaffected by such disasters are rarely of the view that they have, in someway, contributed to the happenings of such disasters. In Europe and parts ofAmerica, winter temperatures plummeted towards the end of 2010 recordingsome of the lowest temperatures in history whilst in the southernhemisphere, cyclones and floods have plagued Australia thereby giving riseto prophecies that perhaps, the world may be coming to an end.