The Malaysian Public Universities are undergoing the process of transformation which requires efforts from every components of the universities, especially the academic staffs, in order to achieve high rankings internationally and to fulfil their Key Performance Indicator (KPI) for the purpose of promotion and appraisal. These ambitions have increased the workload of academic staffs and extend their workloads from teaching to other myriad of responsibilities such as; research, consultation, administrative and community services. This paper examines the impact of transformation of university status and the workload of academic staff. Data was collected through interview with the top level management from four different categories of universities such as APEX, Research, Focus and Comprehensive University. Thematic content data analysis technique was used in analysing the data collected. This paper finds that the transformation of higher education status has intricated the workloads of academic staffs with less benefits. The workloads and job specifications of the academic staffs are different in accordance to the categories of the universities. Meanwhile, all public universities are bound to follow the dictated scheme provided by the Public Service Department of Malaysia. This study suggests that the contract of service of academic staffs to be revised and to include clear terms on the improvement of scheme and benefits for academic staffs in public universities.

Purpose: This study explores the challenges for consumer protection in the Nigerian deregulated electricity sector. The study argues that ignorant and unenlightened consumers are easy prey for exploitation in the marketplace. Educating the consumer minimizes consumer exploitation and enhances consumer protection.Design/methodology/approach: The study is qualitative. Twenty in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with the relevant stakeholders involved in consumer protection and standard setting in the Nigerian electricity sector. The study adopted the Benner's Interpretive Phenomenology and explored the everyday practical experience and perspectives of the participants on the challenges of consumer protection. The analysis was thematically conducted and accordingly supported by sufficient excerpts. Findings:The study found several challenges for consumer protection in the Nigerian electricity sector. Emphatically, the participants were unanimous on lack of awareness as the major challenge for the electricity consumers' protection. Research limitations:The research participants were only staff from consumer protection and products standard setting agencies, academics, and heads of consumer organizations. Additionally, the paper only addressed the challenge of lack of awareness and the data collection constrained by funds paucity and difficulties in securing appointments with the busy participants. Practical implications:The study suggests that consumer protection agencies need to do more in the area of consumer education and enlightenment otherwise the exploitation of the Nigerian electricity consumers will continue. Originality/value: Consumer protection literature abounds. This study is, however, the first attempt at qualitatively exploring in-depth the challenges for electricity consumers in deregulated electricity sector. The study emphasized the value of consumer awareness for better consumer protection.

The paper assessed the appropriateness of the regular courts for consumer redress in Nigeria in view of delays, and the cost of legal services before the ordinary courts. The paper adopted a phenomenological qualitative research approach in exploring the perspectives and experience of government officials and other private bodies involved in consumer protection and consumer redress. Twenty face-to-face interviews were conducted, transcribed and thematically analysed. The study found that legal services are not affordable to the consumers and that the ordinary courts are inappropriate for consumer dispute resolution. The research participants were limited to officials of consumer protection, products standard setting agencies, legal aid, academics, and heads of consumer organizations. The participants excluded the ordinary consumer of goods and services in the country. The study recommends the establishment of a cheap, simple and expeditious redress mechanism for redressing the widespread consumer injustice in the country. A wellfunded legal aid scheme to bridge the gap between the poor consumer and the justice system is equally suggested. This study is the first attempt at qualitatively exploring in-depth the appropriateness of the justice delivery system for consumer redress in Nigeria.

For a stiffer penalty, punishment for the environmental violation was generally increased from Malaysian Ringgit 10,000 to Malaysian Ringgit 100,000 and from two years to five years imprisonment twenty years ago. Although the penalties are improved, the cases of environmental pollution and violation are yet increasing. This article examines the trend of punishment for environmental violations that imposed on the corporate entities or corporations. Focusing on the case of water pollution, the observations are made to the penalty’s provisions of the Environmental Quality Act 1974 and the penalties imposed through the court judgment against the corporations. For this purpose, cases and charges of water pollution are obtained from the records of Department of Environment Malaysia. Moreover, views of the judges of the Green Court on both laws and judgments relating to penalties are acquired. The study found that: (a) there is a wide gap between the punishment imposed by law and the penalties positioned by court; (b) corporate entities are willing to pay fines; (c) courts are not ready to impose imprisonment for default of payment to the corporations or individuals within the corporations. Though addressing water pollution, the findings should be far-reaching surpassing other types of environmental pollution.

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Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) has been signed by Malaysian Government on 8 April 2008. It shows the desire and commitment of the Government of Malaysia to give recognition to the rights of People with Disabilities. The aim of this article is to review the rights to work for Persons with Disabilities under the Federal Constitution and Person with Disabilities Act 2008 in Malaysia. This study will use Legal studies as research methodology and it involved two types of method which is doctrine study of the law and socio-legal studies. The studies showed that the rights to work for PWDs in Malaysia stated as generally in the Federal Constitution and the rights has been detailed in Person With Disabilities Act 2008. The existence of the right to work exclusively under the Person With Disabilities Act 2008 makes those rights not only for normal people but it is also owned by the PWDs. However, the existence of legislation alone is not enough if followed by enforcement. Thus, the improvement in the law and its implementation should be further strengthened through several proposals suggested by this article. It is to ensure the rights of the PWDs to get the job be given serious attention by the community in line with the original purpose of Persons with Disabilities Act 2008 being created.

Recognition and enforcement are crucial elements of arbitration. Without the possibility for the winning party to enforce the arbitral award in its desired country, the whole arbitration process becomes pointless. This paper discusses the requirements for recognition and enforcement of international arbitration awards in Malaysia and Saudi Arabia. The paper aims to provide a clarification to the Arbitration law in both countries focusing mainly on the issue of the requirements regarding the recognition and enforcement of international arbitration awards. In this paper, both the Malaysian Arbitration Act 2005 and the Saudi Arbitration Act 2012 were compared with the Convention on Settlement of Investment Disputes 1965 (ICSID Convention). The methodology adopted in this paper was purely doctrinal in nature focusing mainly on the primary and secondary sources. On a final note, the paper concluded that the two Acts are less similar to the ICSID Convention when it comes to the requirements for recognition and enforcement of international arbitration awards. Hence, there is an urgent need for the two countries to adopt some form of reforms as far as the two Acts are concerned especially on the issue of ‘reciprocity reservation’ since it adds more complications to business transaction.