Why Tourism Law?

Holiday vacation is an interesting topic to discuss, especially when school holidays is just around the corner. For those who already married, they may be wondering which holiday destination that best suit their mood to renew their vow and exchange anniversary gifts. For the professionals, selecting an interesting destination either for business meeting, corporate conference, job promotion course or signing commercial agreement is very important since the nice and peaceful environment does, to some extent, carries some unexplained influential factors that may lead to the successfulness of their carrier.     

We have to admit the fact that after long hours on computer and tight working schedule, people need something special either to refresh their mind from stress or to reward themselves or to further motivate themselves. One way to temporarily put an end to our busy working cycle is to simply have a short holiday vacation. It can be an international holiday vacation or the domestic one. Long time ago, people thought that having a holiday trip and stay in a hotel room are only meant for those who can afford luxury life style. Nowadays, with the increase in holiday trip promotion throughout the media and high level of competition among the operators in the industry, the way how people think has changed and now, holiday vacation has nearly becomes a need, for at least, once a year. In fact, there are many types of tourism to list - medical tourism, space tourism, sex tourism, wildlife tourism, geotourism, rural tourism, extreme tourism, archeological tourism, shark tourism, atomic tourism, militarism heritage tourism, religious tourism and a lot of them.

For the Government, the importance of tourism sector for the continuous economic growth cannot be disputed. Reliance on natural resources such as petroleum and gas is bound to diminishing returns in the future. For the business minded persons, tourism sector provides wide range of opportunites for lucrative income – by becoming a tourist guide, tour operator, travel agent, running a homestay, resort or hotel: from whom the Government collecting revenue and annual retention for every license, permit, certificate, grant or notice issued. With the complexity and legal issues surrounding the industry, tourism law or its alternate name, travel law is a new area in litigation profile that cross jurisdictions. Type of claims may cover breach of holiday contract resulting from misrepresentation of package holiday advertisement, tort of negligence of holiday operators, claim for physical injuries sustained during the vacation, non-pecuniary loss for cancelled holiday vacation, flight delays, etc. Other international issues may includes international safety and security issues, citing bombing tragedy in Bali, tsunami in Japan, as well as Katrina hurricane in the USA.       

In the near future, I will share more information pertaining to the common players in the tourism industry, what are your rights as a tourist a.k.a a consumer under the law, how to protect yourself against dishonest operators and how to avoid from being cheated, how to file and pursue your claims against errant operators in the tribunal for consumer claim or small claims court, relevant tips and useful guides for domestic and international holiday vacation, what are the safety measures or necessary precaution when natural disaster struck during your holiday vacation, what is responsible tourism and ethical issues surrounding tourism industry, etc.

Next post:

1. Tourist Guide, Travel Agent, Tour Operator: Who Are They?

2. Ruined Holiday Vacation: What are the possible nightmares that awaits? 

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Guide For Chambering Students | Filing Form 1, Affidavit and Form 2

I have this kind of thought - why study law when you have no intention of becoming a lawyer. Yeah but I know, that kind of thinking is not generally applicable. Some people may learn it for the purpose of knowledge in fact they do not even have an interest of practicing law.

Forget about that and I'll proceed about what I really want to share here. For those law students who are about to finish their studies I believe most of them plan to proceed with pupillage/chambering. Thus, you must have knowledge on how to file your Form 1, Affidavit and Form 2.

First of all you must aware that Form 1 is actually you Petition and then you've Affidavit for that Petition and Form 2 is the Notice. You must properly fill these documents and make sure there is no error on these three papers. I'll guide you later on how to fill these three papers.

After you've filled these three papers, they are ready to be filed. So this is the tiring part if you do not know how to start and where to go. After you've completed the documents, you must head to Kompleks Mahkamah Kuala Lumpur at Jalan Duta (if you do not where the hell Mahkamah KL is, please look up at Google Map).

Once you reach at Mahkamah Kuala Lumpur, please go first to Bahagian Rayuan dan Kuasa-Kuasa Khas or in short they call it "RKK". You should meet the staff at RKK as they will assist to check your Form 1, Affidavit and Form 2 before you can proceed for E-Filing. At this very first stage, it will be hurtful if your papers are problematic ie error in filling the documents. If everything is okay, they you're good to proceed with E-Filing.

Before I forget, how to go to RKK? When you step into Kompleks Mahkamah KL, please take the stairs on your left, then turn to your left, and find the RKK sign. After your papers have been checked, please return to ground level and proceed to right wing office (on your left when you're walking downwards the stair). Please move to Counter 4 where you need to fill the form for e-filing and to obtain your queue number.

Basically in kinda a long process, and my colleague has prepared a flow chart to file these three papers. If you want to make life easier, you may contact him and deal with him with regard the guide/the flow chart of filing Form 1, Affidavit and Form 2 (he may charge you for the chart because he put his best effort to observe the process and put his best effort to prepare that nice and easy flow chart).

You may contact him via his Facebook here -  Ahmad Afiq (Kyle Fahkrurazzi).

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When 7 Years of Standing of Your Master Start?

I know there a lot of law students out there are the final year/final semester law students and I suppose you've already planned what you're going to do next. But the idea is that you're always encourage to do your chambering (remember the word "chambering" is our custom, and it's never existed in your LPA). Chambering or you should call it as "pupillage" is a requirement, and you should not do it just for fun.

There are many things you need consider before choosing which firm you intend to join. But the only matter I want to share here is the standing of your master. Legal Provision Act 1976 clearly provides that your master must be in active practice for seven years.

13. (1) Subject to subsection (4) a pupil shall serve his period of pupillage with an advocate and solicitor who is and has been in active practice in Malaysia for a total period of not less than seven years immediately preceding the date of commencement of his pupillage.

The question is how you calculate that seven years standing? If you're looking up in Bar Council Directory, you'll find your master profile in which the profile states the date of admission to the Bar. It will give you an impression that the period of seven years started from that date of admission. If you rely on that, you may have a problem later.

I filed my petition on 22nd March 2012. My master's date of admission was January 2005. If you count it, it already exceed 7 years. A week later, Bar Council called me and told me my master still does not completed 7 years of standing. I asked why because his admission was January 2005. And Bar Council informed me the calculation of 7 years only start from the first Practitioner Certificate of your master.

So, if you're master was called to the bar after year 2000, you must confirm with your master his/her first PC. Then you can calculate the 7 years standing. What happened to me caused me to get new master and file again in which I did on 12 April. Hence, I will finish my pupillage a lil bit late compared to other friends who already got their short-call.

May this information help you later.

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Man's Application To Change His Name

As he went through an operation to become a woman, now he argues that he's facing problems because the name is still a man's name. He wants to change it - to the woman's name. He made an application before the court. And seriously it is not an easy decision to be made.

“If the court allows a name change, we fear it might have an impact on society.

“It is a difficult decision,” he said.

High Court Judge Datuk Mohd Yazid Mustafa set July 18 for the decision for that complicated case. I am sure Malaysians will be waiting for that decision because if court allows the application, the fear is that it will open a floodgate.

That group of people will be keep coming to the High Court for name changing if on this July 18 such application is allowed. Thus, sit tight, wait patiently and we will see how the decision will be made by the High Court.

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