Liew Horng Bin

On the court record

A constitutional, revenue and commercial litigation practice engaged with statutory and constitutional interpretation, up to the Federal Court.

Liew Horng Bin practises in constitutional, revenue and commercial litigation, appearing across the Federal Court (Mahkamah Persekutuan), the High Court (Mahkamah Tinggi) and the Court of Appeal (Mahkamah Rayuan), with the reported decisions weighted toward the appellant side. A defining strand engages the interpretation of the Federal Constitution directly — including the operation of Article 4(1) together with Article 4(2) on the striking down of laws inconsistent with the Constitution — and questions of statutory interpretation more generally.

The revenue side is prominent: the reported matters engage tax questions, including the provisions in sections 89E, 90 and 90A governing assessments and the recovery of tax. There is also bankruptcy and company work, including security for costs and the judicial discretion to order it, and share disputes. Appearing largely as appellant, but also as defendant, intervener and respondent, the practice is instructed in matters that turn on the interpretation of statute and the Constitution and on the reach of the court's powers.

The work turns on questions of constitutional and statutory interpretation rather than on primary fact-finding. In the constitutional matters the argument concerns the validity of a statutory provision and the mechanism by which an unconstitutional law is struck down; in the tax matters the correct construction of the charging and recovery provisions; in the security-for-costs matters the exercise of the court's discretion; and in the share and bankruptcy matters the governing statutory framework. The matters that reach the Federal Court turn on questions of law of general importance.

The overall profile is a constitutional, revenue and commercial litigation practice conducted at every tier up to the Federal Court. The matters turn on the interpretation of the Federal Constitution and of the tax and companies statutes, and on the court's discretionary powers, rather than on any criminal dimension, marking a practice engaged with questions of statutory and constitutional interpretation.