It has been an exciting period for the construction industry in the past few months which saw a number of important developments in the construction law and practice in Malaysia. These developments include the recent Federal Court decision in the case of Far East Holdings Bhd and Another v Majlis Ugama Islam dan Adat Resam Melayu Pahang and 2 Other Appeals that immediately drew contentious debates among arbitration practitioners and users of arbitration and resulted in the subsequent statutory changes made to our arbitration law by the enactment of Arbitration (Amendment) Act 2018 which came into effect on 8.5.2018. An equally crucial development can also be seen in the adjudication law such as the decision from the Federal Court in View Esteem Sdn Bhd v Bina Puri Holdings Sdn Bhd and the Court of Appeal decision in Bauer (M) Sdn Bhd v Jack-In-Pile (M) Sdn Bhd. These decisions had changed the prior law and practice in the statutory adjudication, which also at the same time, highlighted the distinct features in our adjudication regime that one do not see in the other jurisdictions having similar statutory adjudication regime.
