Overview
- Provides a historical comprehensive policy and law explanation and insights of preventive detention laws in Malaysia
- Use specific examples to cast light on the misuse of the laws by the executive on the basis of national security and terrorism threats to Malaysia
- Explores the fundamental problems with preventive detention laws in Malaysia and offers solutions to improve human rights
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Table of contents (5 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Keywords
- Preventive detention
- Administrative detention
- Fundamental human rights
- United Nations Human Rights Committee
- HRC
- Constitutional law
- International Commission of Jurists
- ICJ
- International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
- ICCPR
- Arbitrary Detention
- International human rights law
- Malaysian law
- Federal Constitution of Malaysia
- Prevention of Crime
- PCA
- Security Offences (Special Measures) Act
- SOSMA
- Prevention of Terrorism Act
- POTA
About this book
This book examines the extraordinary nature of the power of preventive detention, which permits executive dispensation of the personal liberty of an individual on the mere apprehension that, if free and unfettered, he may commit acts prejudicial to national security or public order. In light of the extraordinary scope of this power, it, therefore, contends that the scope of the power should be confined to genuine emergencies threatening the life of the nation.
Against the above background, this book sheds light on the fact that Article 149 of the Federal Constitution of Malaysia empowers the Parliament to enact preventive detention laws authorizing the executive branch of government to preventively detain individuals without the precondition of an emergency. Furthermore, the Constitution does not stipulate adequate safeguards for mitigating the harshness of preventive detention laws.This book makes it manifestly evident thatthe weaknesses of the constitutional provisions concerning preventive detention have enabled succeeding generations of executives in Malaysia to not only enact a series of preventive detention statues for arrogating to themselves wide powers concerning preventive detention but also to rely on them for arbitrarily detaining their political adversaries.
Consequently, on the basis of this analysis, this book puts forward concrete recommendations for insertion in the Constitution detailed norms providing for legal limits on the wide power of the executive concerning preventive detention. The insertion of such norms would ensure the maintenance of a delicate balance between protecting national interests and, simultaneously, observing respect for an individual’s right to protection from arbitrary deprivation of liberty.This book is useful for academics and students of comparative constitutional law, human rights and Asian law. The extensivelaw reform analysis undertaken in this book also greatly benefits the policy makers in Malaysia and the policy makers of constitutional polities facing similar problems with the issue of circumscribing the scope of the powers concerning preventive detention.Authors and Affiliations
About the authors
Safia Naz is a PhD scholar in the Durham Law School at Durham University. Her research interests are in the areas of constitutional law and human rights law. She has published research articles in theseareas in quality peer-reviewed journals, such as the Suffolk Transnational Law Review and Commonwealth Law Bulletin.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: The Use of Preventive Detention Laws in Malaysia: A Case for Reform
Authors: M. Ehteshamul Bari, Safia Naz
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-5811-5
Publisher: Springer Singapore
eBook Packages: Law and Criminology, Law and Criminology (R0)
Copyright Information: Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020
Hardcover ISBN: 978-981-15-5810-8Published: 08 July 2020
Softcover ISBN: 978-981-15-5813-9Published: 08 July 2021
eBook ISBN: 978-981-15-5811-5Published: 07 July 2020
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XIII, 133
Number of Illustrations: 1 b/w illustrations
Topics: Human Rights, Constitutional Law, Migration, Prison and Punishment, History of South Asia