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2 IIULJ 62 (1992)
The Legislative Arrangements under the Malaysian Federation

handle is hein.journals/iiumlj2 and id is 161 raw text is: The Legislative Arrangements Under the Malaysian Federation IBRAHIM BIN ISMAIL I. The Notion of Federalism The word federalism is derived from the Latin word 'foedus' which means treaty of alliance. Originally it denotes that at the root of every federation lies an agreement between the participants. In a federation, every group has a role to perform which is appropriate for the achievement of the common aim in social, economic, cultural or professional domain for which the association is made but retains its freedom of action on condition that the common purpose is not jeopardised.1 In the classic work of Sir K.C. Wheare, the federal system implies the duality of legal sovereignty which it is not confined exclusively to either the central or state government but rather is divided between them.2 Thus, a federation is a form of political organisation within which central and regional governments are coordinated, in the sense, that neither level of government is subordinate to the other in legal authority and each government should be limited to its own sphere and, within that sphere, should be independent of the other.3 This sort of definition has come to be generally accepted in theory but in practice it is hard to be applied.4 In practice the central overrides the state (see part II). Under the above definition, a federal form of government is contrasted with the other two commonly-known forms ofgovernment i.e. unitary and confederal government.5 A unitary state is one where the central/national body has all the sovereign power, with the member states entirely legally dependent upon the will of the central government, for example the United Kingdom.6 Whereas in a confederal state the member states retain all these sovereign powers with the central government entirely legally dependent upon their will, for example the United States of America before 1787.7 Federalism modifies and then combines the characteristics of the other two forms. A federal system combines states which confederally retain sovereignty within a certain sphere, with a central body that nationally posseses sovereignty within another sphere, and the combination creates a new and different thing to which is given the name federal. From the above definition, therefore, the features of a federal system of government can generally be characterised as follows:8 a. The business of the state is divided between two governments; a federal government embracing the whole territory of the nation and a state government for each of the lesser territories. The territory of the member state is at the same time the territory of the federal state. Thus, in the federal state there exists unity Digitized from Best Copy Available

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