Jabatan Peguam Negara

On the court record

Illustrates how the Attorney General's Chambers assists the courts on constitutional and public-interest questions and how the courts delimit federal-State jurisdiction and the reach of public-law remedies.

The Jabatan Peguam Negara (the Attorney General's Chambers) appears in this corpus in a distinctive range of roles — respondent, intervener, amicus curiae and interested party — reflecting the Attorney General's constitutional position as the Government's principal legal adviser and the guardian of the public interest in litigation. A notable group of Federal Court matters concerns the original jurisdiction conferred by Article 128(1)(b) of the Federal Constitution and the meaning of a 'dispute' 'between' the Federation and a State, in proceedings raising the boundaries of federal and State authority, including a matter involving the Sabah Law Society. In several appeals the Chambers appears as amicus curiae to assist the court on questions of general importance, such as the right to appeal against the dismissal of an application to strike out pleadings under Order 18 rule 19 of the Rules of Court 2012, and the interpretation of penal provisions, including whether an old offence provision in the Penal Code remains apposite. The corpus also engages the interpretation of the Attorney General's own powers and role. Because the Chambers participates to represent the public interest and to advise the court rather than to advance a commercial claim, its procedural position — as intervener, amicus or respondent — is itself frequently significant. The matters are decided in the High Court and, disproportionately, the Federal Court, where questions of constitutional and public-law principle are resolved. Collectively the decisions in which the Attorney General's Chambers participates illustrate how the office assists the courts on constitutional and public-interest questions and how the courts delimit federal-State jurisdiction and the reach of public-law remedies. The corpus also reflects the Chambers' participation where the interpretation of the Attorney General's constitutional functions is itself in issue, and where the court is assisted on the proper scope of a statutory power before deciding a private party's challenge. Across these matters the office's role is to place the public interest and the correct legal position before the court rather than to secure a particular commercial result.