A preliminary study on the formation of land legislation and cadastre system in Sarawak, Malaysia

Abstract

Recent decades have witnessed a perceptible impact of land policy and cadastre on the urbanisation around the globe. Land legislation and cadastre system are the tools and mechanisms in order to achieve the objectives of land policy in delivering sustainable development. According to the Federal Constitution of Malaysia, article 74 empowers the State Legislative Assemblies to enact laws for the matters under the state list while land matters are one of the subjects under the list. Land matters in Sarawak are governed by Sarawak state government, resulting in different land legislation and cadastre system as compared to Peninsular Malaysia. Therefore, this paper aims to give an overview on the land legislation and cadastre system in Sarawak. The chronological evolutions of land legislation from the past to present are discussed. The cadastre system in Sarawak is also presented. On top of that, this paper attempts to review the literature concerning the subject matter of land legislation and cadastre from various countries, which in turn provides valuable lessons for Sarawak. A total of eight recent publications were chosen for review. Each of the publications is analysed based on the title, subject matter, research question, methodology, results and lessons for Sarawak. Towards the end of this paper, the key lessons from the review are presented.