Who Decides What: The Federal, State and Concurrent Lists of the Ninth Schedule

Land is a State matter. Defence is a federal one. Public health sits on a third list that both can touch. In Malaysia, whether the Federation or a State has the power to pass a given law is not a matter of opinion or negotiation — it is written down, subject by subject, in a single schedule at the back of the Federal Constitution.

That schedule is the Ninth Schedule. It sets out three lists of subjects — and two extra ones reserved for Sabah and Sarawak — and the Constitution’s Articles 74 to 77 turn those lists into working rules about who legislates on what.

At a glance

Where	Ninth Schedule, read under Articles 74 and 77
List I	Federal List — Parliament only
List II	State List — State Legislative Assembly only
List III	Concurrent List — both may legislate
List IIA	Supplement to the State List for Sabah and Sarawak (Article 95B(1)(a))
List IIIA	Supplement to the Concurrent List for Sabah and Sarawak (Article 95B(1)(b))
Clash rule	Article 75 — federal law prevails; State law void to the extent of inconsistency
The residue	Article 77 — matters in no list belong to the States

The engine: Articles 74 to 77

The lists are inert on their own. Four Articles give them force.

Article 74 does the assigning. Parliament may make laws on any matter in the Federal List or the Concurrent List; a State Legislature may make laws on any matter in the State List or the Concurrent List. Neither may stray onto the other’s exclusive list, and the power is exercised subject to any conditions the Constitution itself imposes.

Article 75 handles overlap. Because the Concurrent List is open to both, the two can collide. When they do, “the federal law shall prevail and the State law shall, to the extent of the inconsistency, be void.” The State law is not wiped out entirely — only the conflicting part falls away.

Article 76 is the narrow door through which Parliament may enter the State List. It may legislate on a State subject only for one of three purposes: implementing a treaty, agreement or convention (or a decision of an international organisation the Federation belongs to); promoting uniformity of the laws of two or more States; or when requested by the Legislative Assembly of a State. A law made on the uniformity or request ground does not come into operation in a State until that State’s own Legislature adopts it, at which point it is treated as State law.

Article 77 sweeps up everything left over. Any matter “not enumerated in any of the Lists” — and not one Parliament can otherwise legislate on — falls to the State Legislatures. The residue runs to the States, not the Federation.

List I — the Federal List

The Federal List is the longest. It runs to 27 numbered items and covers the machinery of a national government. The main headings, as the Schedule sets them out:

• External affairs — treaties, diplomatic and trade representation, extradition, passports and visas, pilgrimages outside Malaysia.
• Defence — the armed forces, war and peace, arms and explosives, national service, civil defence.
• Internal security — police, criminal investigation, public order, prisons, preventive detention, national registration.
• Civil and criminal law and the administration of justice — the constitution and jurisdiction of all courts other than Syariah Courts, contract, tort, property and its transfer (except land), marriage and divorce, succession, bankruptcy, and the law of evidence.
• Federal citizenship and naturalisation; aliens.
• Finance — currency, national savings, the public debt, taxation, and audit of the Federation and the States.
• Trade, commerce and industry, shipping, communications (including posts, telecommunications, broadcasting and television), and federal works and power (including electricity and inter-state water).
• Education, medicine and health, labour and social security, the welfare of the aborigines, censorship, newspapers and publishing, co-operative societies, and tourism (item 25A).
• All matters relating to the Federal Territories of Kuala Lumpur, Labuan and Putrajaya (item 27).

Item 4 draws one line the rest of the Constitution repeatedly returns to: federal civil and criminal law expressly excludes Islamic personal law relating to marriage, divorce, guardianship, maintenance, adoption, legitimacy, family law, gifts and succession. Those subjects are carved out of the Federal List and placed on the State List instead.

List II — the State List

The State List is short — twelve numbered items plus item 12A — but it holds subjects that shape daily life. Item 1 and item 2 are the two most consequential.

Item 1 — Islamic law and Malay custom. Except in the Federal Territories, this covers Islamic personal and family law for persons professing Islam, Zakat and Baitulmal, mosques, the creation and punishment of offences against the precepts of Islam by Muslims (except in matters on the Federal List), and “the constitution, organization and procedure of Syariah courts.” Those courts have jurisdiction only over persons professing Islam and only over the matters in this item.

Item 2 — land. Land tenure, registration of titles, Malay reservations (or, in Sabah and Sarawak, native reservations), mining permits and leases, and the compulsory acquisition of land are all State subjects.

The remaining items:

Item	Subject
3	Agriculture and forestry
4	Local government outside the Federal Territories — municipal corporations, local authorities, local rates and elections
5	Other local services — boarding houses, burial and cremation grounds, markets and fairs, licensing of theatres and cinemas
6	State works and water — State roads, bridges and ferries; rivers and canals (subject to the Federal List)
7	Machinery of the State Government — the Civil List, State pensions, State borrowing and debt
8	State holidays
9–11	State offences, inquiries for State purposes, and indemnities under State law
12	Turtles and riverine fishing
12A	Libraries, museums, ancient monuments and archaeological sites not declared federal

List III — the Concurrent List

The Concurrent List holds subjects on which both Parliament and a State Legislature may pass law — with Article 75 deciding any clash in the Federation’s favour. As the Schedule lists them:

1. Social welfare and social services; protection of women, children and young persons
2. Scholarships
3. Protection of wild animals and birds; National Parks
4. Animal husbandry, veterinary services and animal quarantine
5. Town and country planning (except in the federal capital)
6. Vagrancy and itinerant hawkers
7. Public health, sanitation and the prevention of diseases
8. Drainage and irrigation
9. Rehabilitation of mining land and eroded land 9A. Fire safety measures in the construction and maintenance of buildings 9B. Culture and sports 9C. Housing and housing accommodation 9D. Water supplies and services (subject to the Federal List) 9E. Preservation of heritage

Lists IIA and IIIA — the Sabah and Sarawak supplements

When Sabah and Sarawak entered the Federation in 1963, they kept legislative subjects that the Malayan States did not have. Article 95B carries these as two supplements to the Ninth Schedule that apply only to those two States.

List IIA — Supplement to the State List adds, among others:

• Native law and custom (item 13) — including native personal law and the constitution, organisation and procedure of native courts;
• Incorporation of State authorities (item 14);
• Ports and harbours not declared federal (item 15);
• Cadastral land surveys (item 16);
• in Sabah, the Sabah Railway (item 18);
• and, subject to the Federal List, water supplies and services (item 20).

List IIIA — Supplement to the Concurrent List adds subjects both the Federation and those States may legislate on, including personal law on marriage and succession (item 10), adulteration of foodstuffs (item 11), shipping under fifteen registered tons and estuarine fishing (item 12), water-power electricity (item 13), agricultural and forestry research (item 14), and State charities (item 15).

These supplements are among the matters the Constitution protects from amendment without the concurrence of the relevant State — see Amending the Federal Constitution and MA63.

Common mistakes

“Health is federal, so States have nothing to do with it.” Item 14 of the Federal List covers medicine and health, but public health, sanitation and the prevention of diseases is item 7 of the Concurrent List — both may legislate, with federal law prevailing on any clash.

“If a subject isn’t on the State List, it must be federal.” The opposite is the default. Article 77 gives every matter enumerated in no list to the State Legislatures, provided Parliament has no other power over it.

“Parliament can never legislate on land or Islamic law.” As a rule those are State subjects. But Article 76 opens a limited route onto the State List — for treaties, for uniformity, or at a State’s request — and a uniformity or request law generally operates in a State only once that State adopts it.

“The three lists apply the same way everywhere.” Sabah and Sarawak carry two extra lists (IIA and IIIA) under Article 95B, and several State List items expressly exclude the Federal Territories of Kuala Lumpur, Labuan and Putrajaya, whose subjects are handled federally under item 27 of the Federal List.

What’s next

For where the Ninth Schedule sits within the whole document, see the Federal Constitution of Malaysia. For the courts named in State List item 1 and Federal List item 4, see Civil and Syariah Courts. For how the two Houses that hold the federal legislative power are constituted, see Parliament. For the higher bar that protects the Sabah and Sarawak supplements from amendment, see Amending the Federal Constitution and MA63.

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This article is classified as sensitive (constitution) under NegaraKu.md’s editorial policy because its subject is the constitutional division of legislative power, including State List item 1 on Islamic law and the safeguards for Sabah and Sarawak. It is written to be strictly descriptive — reporting the Ninth Schedule and Articles 74 to 77 and 95B as published, without commentary or interpretation — and is held as a draft pending human review before publication.