International law and the legal history of Malaysia: an analysis of the sovereign status of the Malay states in the colonial era

This paper looks at how international law informs the sovereign status of the polities that form Malaysia and how such status impacted on the formation of the State. Malaysia as an independent State did not emerge out of colonialism from a single entity. Malaya which gained independence in 1957 and...

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Main Author:	Ahamat, Haniff
Format:	Conference or Workshop Item
Language:	English English
Published:	2013
Subjects:	K Law (General)
Online Access:	http://irep.iium.edu.my/34753/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/34753/2/Acceptance_of_ICLAS_paper.pdf http://irep.iium.edu.my/34753/5/20140130121053325.pdf

id	iium-34753
recordtype	eprints
spelling	iium-347532014-03-04T03:32:48Z http://irep.iium.edu.my/34753/ International law and the legal history of Malaysia: an analysis of the sovereign status of the Malay states in the colonial era Ahamat, Haniff K Law (General) This paper looks at how international law informs the sovereign status of the polities that form Malaysia and how such status impacted on the formation of the State. Malaysia as an independent State did not emerge out of colonialism from a single entity. Malaya which gained independence in 1957 and later Malaysia which was formed in 1963 came into being as a result of several States agreeing to form a federation. These States were historically sovereign or part of sovereign Sultanates. This paper will analyse various treaties entered into by these States, the British and other Powers that had an effect on the sovereignty of the Malay States. This paper hypothesizes that under international law, transfer of sovereignty to the British had taken place despite the choice of protectorates by the British for the Malay States. This paper finds that there was no total loss of sovereignty by the Malay States as the Malay Rulers were recognized as sovereign in the British courts of law and they maintained exclusive control over Islam and the Malay custom. However, as international law was heavily influenced by positivism at the peak of European colonization of Asia and Africa, it is not possible for the residual sovereignty to be defended. At the same time the protectorate treaties had consolidated the power of the Sultan within his respective State ending the practice of decentralized rule inherited from the Hindu concept of mandala. 2013 Conference or Workshop Item PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://irep.iium.edu.my/34753/2/Acceptance_of_ICLAS_paper.pdf application/pdf en http://irep.iium.edu.my/34753/5/20140130121053325.pdf Ahamat, Haniff (2013) International law and the legal history of Malaysia: an analysis of the sovereign status of the Malay states in the colonial era. In: 2nd International Conference on Law and Society , 18-19 September 2013, Gombak, Kuala Lumpur. (In Press)
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Local University
institution	International Islamic University Malaysia
building	IIUM Repository
collection	Online Access
language	English English
topic	K Law (General)
spellingShingle	K Law (General) Ahamat, Haniff International law and the legal history of Malaysia: an analysis of the sovereign status of the Malay states in the colonial era
description	This paper looks at how international law informs the sovereign status of the polities that form Malaysia and how such status impacted on the formation of the State. Malaysia as an independent State did not emerge out of colonialism from a single entity. Malaya which gained independence in 1957 and later Malaysia which was formed in 1963 came into being as a result of several States agreeing to form a federation. These States were historically sovereign or part of sovereign Sultanates. This paper will analyse various treaties entered into by these States, the British and other Powers that had an effect on the sovereignty of the Malay States. This paper hypothesizes that under international law, transfer of sovereignty to the British had taken place despite the choice of protectorates by the British for the Malay States. This paper finds that there was no total loss of sovereignty by the Malay States as the Malay Rulers were recognized as sovereign in the British courts of law and they maintained exclusive control over Islam and the Malay custom. However, as international law was heavily influenced by positivism at the peak of European colonization of Asia and Africa, it is not possible for the residual sovereignty to be defended. At the same time the protectorate treaties had consolidated the power of the Sultan within his respective State ending the practice of decentralized rule inherited from the Hindu concept of mandala.
format	Conference or Workshop Item
author	Ahamat, Haniff
author_facet	Ahamat, Haniff
author_sort	Ahamat, Haniff
title	International law and the legal history of Malaysia: an analysis of the sovereign status of the Malay states in the colonial era
title_short	International law and the legal history of Malaysia: an analysis of the sovereign status of the Malay states in the colonial era
title_full	International law and the legal history of Malaysia: an analysis of the sovereign status of the Malay states in the colonial era
title_fullStr	International law and the legal history of Malaysia: an analysis of the sovereign status of the Malay states in the colonial era
title_full_unstemmed	International law and the legal history of Malaysia: an analysis of the sovereign status of the Malay states in the colonial era
title_sort	international law and the legal history of malaysia: an analysis of the sovereign status of the malay states in the colonial era
publishDate	2013
url	http://irep.iium.edu.my/34753/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/34753/2/Acceptance_of_ICLAS_paper.pdf http://irep.iium.edu.my/34753/5/20140130121053325.pdf
first_indexed	2023-09-18T20:50:00Z
last_indexed	2023-09-18T20:50:00Z
_version_	1777409930682171392

International law and the legal history of Malaysia: an analysis of the sovereign status of the Malay states in the colonial era

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