Legal culture is difficult to define precisely due to its basis in various contextual backgrounds. A legal system's cultural values are shaped by both traditional customs as well as political and economic forces. In Malaysia, cultural and religious values influence the legal system, as seen through laws prioritizing racial unity and political stability as well as the concurrent application of civil and Sharia law for Muslims and non-Muslims respectively. While political motivations may play a role in certain laws, cultural preferences for social harmony also impact the legal acceptance of constraining civil liberties to some degree.

1. Where does a legal system derive its ‘cultural’ values from? And how significant are
each of these sources?
Legal culture may include elements of family obligations to bail out family members in
trouble (From the Indonesia Corporate law paper). This practice is not, and may never be
codified in substance, hence Friedman’s caution that:
Structure and substance are real components of a legal system, but they are at best a
blueprint or a design, not a working machine. The trouble with...structure and substance
was that they were static; they were like a still photograph of the legal system...The
picture lacked both motion and truth...and is like an enchanted courtroom, petrified,
immobile, under some odd, eternal spell.
The reason for the lack of description of legal culture is then explained by the fact that it is
extremely difficult to make precise statements about it. I concur with Friedman that legal
culture is often hard to pin point or describe in textual terms due to the various cultural
contextual backgrounds that must first be elaborated upon in detail before a foreigner will
start to appreciate the new environment for which he/she is operating within. Personally, I
find learning legal culture analogous to a golfer trying to improve his/her putting. We could
teach the golfer putting stroke technique and where to aim, but ultimately, to become a good
putter, the golfer will have to develop a ‘feel’ as to how hard to hit the putt or how to putt
well under immense pressure. This is no easy feat because green speeds and undulations will
always vary. Therefore, akin to a golfer learning from mistakes and trial by error, a good
sense of Asian legal culture may only be truly developed through engagement and experience
in the region.
In addition, I would contend that cultural values are shaped by a combination of both absolute
traditional customary practices as well as political and economical forces. At times, it is hard
to divorce custom from these forces. For example, traditional Jewish and Chinese cultures
revolve around traders operating family businesses and perhaps this could explain the strong
emphasis on relentlessly pursuing material wealth (which is a bit different from the typical
Australian attitude of enjoying life and leading a balanced lifestyle) and maintaining close
familial ties. This is arguably, and interestingly evidenced during Chinese New Year
celebrations whereby ‘Hong Bao’ or red packets filled with money are distributed to family
members and close friends with the word ‘Fu’ (prosperity) printed on it to symbolize
monetary wealth or ‘Wan Shui’, which directly translates to longevity but in Chinese context
infers a retention of power/status (to someone who already is in power, usually a senior
official in the past). To the objective person, this would stand in stark contrast with the spirit
of giving over Christmas! However, I did not raise this point to question the moral merits of
different cultures, but to simply highlight the interdependent nature of certain elements of
Asian values culture with economics and politics.
What are the values of my own legal system? In Malaysia, national security and unity
amongst the major racial groups is given utmost priority in order to maintain political
stability. As a result, the Internal Security Act (ISA) implemented during the 1960’s to stem
the Communist tide is still operational today even though communist threat is now well and
truly behind us. The ISA is similar to anti-terrorism legislation and contains broad police
powers which include indefinite detention without trial.

2. While the ISA, prima facie, appears primarily politically motivated to maintain political
power by restraining freedom of speech/expression, I would argue that there are cultural
values at play as well. Constraining freedom of expression may have cultural connotations
because traditional Asian values routinely favor social harmony and as such public sentiment
may regard the silent suffering of a few as the lesser of two evils? There are other unique
features of Malaysian legal system such as concurrent existence of Islamic Shariah law
abreast of the common law to cater for the Muslim majority. Shariah law only applies to
Muslims. For example, if a Malay woman is ‘caught’ having premarital sexual relations with
a Chinese man, she will be duly charged for committing ‘khalwat’ under the Shariah Law
while the Chinese man is absolved from guilt. There are also Islamic banking laws which do
not recognize the concept of accruing interest from loans to Muslims. As such, it is clear that
cultural/religious values do influence legal culture to some extent. For the above reasons, I
would disagree with Lo and Volpp’s contention that material and political factors matter
more in determining legal phenomenon, at least in my home country.