In UYK v UYJ, the High Court (Family Division) provided useful guidance on how and to what extent COVID-19 should have an impact on parental relocation of children. This note argues that while the court’s approach is sensible in recognising the fast-evolving nature of COVID-19, caution should be taken in ensuring that the effects of COVID-19 on the child’s health and the child’s loss of relationship with the left-behind parent are not overlooked.

In Haris Ibrahim, the Federal Court of Malaysia discussed the legal limits to executive authorities’ powers to investigate judges on suspicion of crime. The case is a rare contribution to the jurisprudence on judges’ criminal liability at common law, as well as a case study in the challenges of reconciling judicial independence with other principles of the constitutional framework and other actors’ roles therein. The Court held that the implied constitutional principle of judicial independence requires that executive authorities follow a “set of protocols” (which the Court formulated) when investigating sitting judges. This was not wrong in principle, but the Court’s understanding of the separation of powers did not give sufficient weight to other constitutional principles which require that the executive, too, be able to do its job without being unduly hindered – particularly when that job itself serves to safeguard constitutional values such as judicial accountability.