PERTANIKA JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

This article considers the relationship between judicial conceptions of paramountcy principle and the participatory rights of Malaysian children in custody dispute. The scope of this article is extended to the coverage of Article 12 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (the Convention) but limited to family justice. The methodology is legal, library-based research focusing mainly on primary and secondary sources and international jurisprudence. The findings indicate a need for reforms in certain areas such as in developing a standard judicial procedure in monitoring the court's adherence to the Convention's provision, in empowering the professionals with relevant expertise in dealing with vulnerable parties, and in promoting the variant method of obtaining the views of the children rather than merely in-camera judicial interview.