Nora Abdul Hak

Setting-up a Sulh-based, community mediation-type of online dispute resolution (ODR) in Malaysia

Islam is a way of life that guides the Muslims from all perspectives, and as portion of Islam, it also promotes peace and conciliation in resolving disputes. The Al-Quran provides guidelines in dispute resolution through a third party called Sulh. Sulh refers to the process of mediation, arbitration and reconciliation that takes place when the parties involved agree on a process of resolving a dispute with a third party mediator, who eventually will ensure that both disputed parties will be satisfied by the outcomes. This work is focused on community mediation, which involved with the disputes between the community members. In Malaysia, Sulh were actually practiced by the Malays prior to the time of the Portuguese, the Dutch and the British. The session will be conducted by a third party who normally a respected and elder person in the society, whom also held the position as the headman (Penghulu or Ketua Kampung) or Imam (a religious leader). Nowadays, given the plural society of Malaysia, and the era of Internet, it is crucial for Sulh to be available online. With the use of ICT tools, Sulh can be promoted to society, and if it is a part of e-government efforts, then it will encourage the society to be involved with the governments mission. The online Sulh will not merely act as an interface for those parties involved. The challenges of making the online system secured, the correct ways of ensuring the data accuracy, understanding on methods that will be used for data propagation (among others), are existed in the domain of Computer Science (CS). There are many possible CS approaches, but the work will focus on Computational Intelligence (CI) techniques, with special interest in connectionist models.

Rights of a Wife in the Case of Conversion to Islam under Family Law in Malaysia

Abstract This article focuses on the issues of conversion to Islam of one party to a non-Muslim marriage. In Malaysia, some legal problems need to be addressed, particularly concerning the rights of a wife to the ancillary claims after dissolution of the marriage such as maintenance, matrimonial property and custody. These issues have been discussed by the Malaysian courts in their judgments when they preside over cases involving conversion to Islam. Among the issues that have been raised is whether a non-Muslim wife is entitled to maintenance after her husband has converted to Islam and, if she is still entitled, for how long. Other problems concern which party shall be entitled to custody of any children as well as the legal status of the marriage. All these issues need to be discussed further as to whether amendment of the existing relevant law is necessary. This article analyses the legal provisions and the cases that have been decided by the Malaysian courts on conversion to Islam.

The Applicability of the 1980 Hague Abduction Convention in Muslim Countries: Particular Reference to the Malaysian Position

In response to the increasing number of traumatic international child abduction cases, the Hague Abduction Convention (the Convention) has been adopted to secure the return of abducted children to their home country. Most Muslim countries are, however, not yet parties to the Convention. This article seeks to investigate the reason for this phenomenon, focusing in particular on the Convention’s compatibility with basic tenets of Islamic law. The article also evaluates Malaysian domestic legislation and case law in order to assess whether Malaysia is in a position to be a party to the Convention. The article finds that although there are a few areas of concern, no serious incompatibility between Shari’ah and the Convention exist, and that more dissemination is required to quash misconceptions about the Convention among Muslim countries. The article concludes with recommendations for Muslim countries in this crucial area of protecting the best interests of our children.