The determination of the religion of the child has become an issue when one of the parents converts into Islam. This often results to disputes on the custody in court, which could give a grave impact on the welfare and the best interest of the child. In the Malaysian legal setting where both the civil and syariah courts co-exist in their respective spheres, there are nevertheless arguments on the overlapping jurisdictions or grey areas in respect to issues such as conversion and family law. This article analyses the decision of the Federal Court in the case of�Indira Ghandi A/P Mutho [2018], its background, issues of judicial review, the jurisdiction of the Syariah courts, registration of conversion, consent from parent(s) and decisions from other related cases. It also studies the development of Islamic law on the issue of conversion, which includes juristic views from the major school of thoughts (mazahib), contemporary Islamic rulings (fatwa) and the official rulings of the National and State Fatwa Committee. This article provides suggestions for the issue in question, from both legal and shariah perspectives.

Since time immemorial, piracy has become a major threat to the safety and security at sea. It has been conferred universal jurisdiction because it is considered as an enemy of humankind. Nevertheless, the punishment of this offence in international law varies from one county to another. For example in Malaysia the criminal would be punished under the Penal Code of Malaysia. On the other hand, in Islamic law the similar act of piracy or hirabah is punishable under the hadd punishment. This paper attempts to analyse the universality of the hadd punishment by making a comparison between the concept and punishments of piracy and hirabah. It is suggested that the hadd punishment for the offence of hirabah has universal character and is not changeable regardless of the place and time as compared to piracy in international law.