PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia is committed to setting up a Law Reform Commission which will see the present administration amending, repealing and replacing existing legislation found to be outdated or archaic.
Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Mohamed Hanipa Maidin will be flying to Australia tomorrow to gain expertise from the neighbouring country on establishing an independent law commission.
“The Law Reform Commission will enable us to study all existing laws. If there is any archaic law, we want to repeal or maybe come out with a good piece of legislation.
“This is because the law has to be amended in consonance with new technology.
“And our constraint at the moment is that there are so many laws that we need to look into,” he told reporters here today.
It was previously reported that Malaysia will study the practices of other Commonwealth countries before setting up an independent law commission.
Hanipa, who is the deputy minister in charge of law, had said that India is one of the countries with vast experience in developing law institutions and Malaysia is keen to benefit from its experience.
He had also said that the government has engaged with the Malaysian Bar Council, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and other stakeholders to seek their ideas.
Once the government completes the necessary studies, a bill will be drafted to set up the commission.
Asked on the move by Sabah courts to employ Artificial Intelligence (AI) to aid in court sentencing, Hanipa said it is one of the reforms aspired to by the present administration under the ruling Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition.
“The law must be kept abreast with developments in technology. And AI and the Internet of Things are new technology.
“If (there are some quarters who are of the view that the adoption of AI in court sentencing) is against the (Federal) Constitution… this can be debated and argued in court.
“You (the relevant parties in court) can even file any application. As I said before, the law must be updated and that it must be amended in consonance with new technology.
“Sabah is making inroads on this and the government supports this. In fact, the government in the future will amend many laws,” he said.
It was reported that the Malaysian judiciary made history by employing AI to aid court sentencing in two drug cases in Sabah on Feb 19.
In one of the cases, a defence counsel had raised an objection, asking the court to confine its mind to materials available in the court.
The objection was raised by counsel Hamid Ismail before magistrate Jessica Ombou Kakayun.
Hamid was representing Denis Modili, who was charged under Section 12(2) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 with possession of 0.01gm of methamphetamine at Kampung Kobusak in Penampang on Dec 16 last year.
“Although the court has discretion to decide whether to use AI or not, I fear it might affect the court’s thinking in sentencing,” Hamid had said.
Jessica replied that the use of AI would aid in decision-making, using data based on arguments made by the defence and prosecution. She had said that AI would analyse a database of cases between 2014 and 2019 in Sabah and Sarawak before delivering recommendations to the court.
Denis, a 43-year-old father of seven, received 12 months' jail, to run concurrently with an 8-month jail sentence he is currently serving for another drug case.