Law in Malaysia

Judicial decisions are based on ‘doctrine of binding precedent’.
Precedents are the decisions made by judges previously in similar
circumstances. There are two types of precedents.
Mandatory precedent is applied when the decisions of superior court
are binding on lower courts or the superior courts are bound by their
own decisions previously. However, the decisions of lower courts are
not binding over superior courts. The lower courts must refer to the
mandatory precedents of superior courts. However, judge of superior
court will distinguish a case before him and the cases laying down the
precedents and can decide not to follow the mandatory precedent if he
thinks that the mandatory precedent is not related to the case before
him. From this, an original precedent is formed.
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