The establishment of the Judicial Appointments Commission in Malaysia to improve the constitutional method of appointing the judges of the superior courts: a critical study

The Judicial Appointments Commission was established in Malaysia in 2009 to ensure unbiased selection of judicial candidates for the consideration of the Prime Minister, who has the final say regarding the appointment of judges to the superior courts. But the provisions concerning Prime Minister’s power to appoint the majority of the members of the Commission and his unfettered power of removing four of the five appointed members without assigning any reason, have calculatedly been devised for ensuring the selection of judicial candidates having right political patronage in accordance with the covert wishes of the Prime Minister. Furthermore, the Prime Minister’s power of rejecting the Commission’s recommendations of multiple candidates renders the undertaking of a lengthy process of selection unproductive and useless. Thus the Judicial Appointments Commission has become a superfluous body with an ineffective modus operandi to attain the stipulated objectives of improving and complementing the constitutional method of appointing judges to the superior courts. Since the Federal Constitution of Malaysia has not empowered the Parliament to enact a law providing for the establishment of a Judicial Appointments Commission, it also appears that the Judicial Appointments Commission Act 2009 is an invalid piece of legislation.     

Pat‐Downs But No Hugs: Why Prison Visitation Protocol Should be Changed to Help Keep Familial Structures Intact

In the United States there are almost three million children who have one or both parents incarcerated. Parental incarceration negatively impacts children in several ways. Visitation protocol varies across facilities nationwide with no modification in protocol for minors. Parental rights are disrupted by visitation protocol because of cost‐prohibitive access and extreme security measures. This Note proposes a model statute that would change visitation protocol to facilitate a clear‐cut set of visitation processes that are tailored to ensure prison safety while also fostering and maintaining a positive relationship between a minor child and his/her incarcerated parent.     

Book reviews

Bryan S. Turner, Orientalism, Postmodernism and Globalising (Routledge, London 1994). 208pp. ISBN 0–415–10861–6, 0–415–10862–4 (pb).

Mir Zohair Husain, Global Islamic Politics, (Harper Collins, London 1995). 282pp. ISBN 0–06501484–7 (pb).

Sondra Farganis, Situating Feminism: From Thought to Action, (Sage, London 1994). 195pp. ISBN 0–8039–4650–3

Tom Mayer, Analytical Marxism, (Sage, California 1994). 371pp. ISBN 0–8039–4681–3 (pb).

Ian Adams, Political Ideology Today, (Manchester University Press, Manchester 1995). 369pp. ISBN 0–7190–3347–0.

Geoffrey Pridham and Tatu Vanhanen, Democratization in Eastern Europe: Domestic and international perspectives, (Routledge, London 1994). 274pp. ISBN 0–415–11063–7(hb), 0–415–11064–5(pb).

Ash Amin (ed), Post‐Fordism: A Reader, (Basil Blackwell, Oxford 1994). 435pp. ISBN 0–631–18857–6 (pb).