Principles of mirror and curtain.

Background.

Malaysia has a long history in its reformation of land law and land administration. Before the
English colonizer came into Malay States, the land law at that time had been influenced by
Islamic Law and Customary Law where the Malay society applied them in their daily life
after the 15th century. The acceptance of Islam by Malay society consequence in the
absorption of Islamic Law into Customary Law. Implementation of Islamic Law into land law
clearly been mentioned through the judgement by Maxwell C.J in Sahrip v. Mitchell & Anor
case:

From the judgement, we may see the concepts which link to the Islamic Land Law principle
such as the nature of ownership right where in Islam everything is belong to Allah and the
human only entrusted to manage it, ihya al-mawat which related to the need to maintain the
land under cultivation and the uncultivated land will be acquired, and usyur where the
responsibility to pay one-tenth of the produce of the land to the Ruler.

Besides, there are also several kind of Customary Law which are parallel to the Islamic Land
Law as we can see in a joint matrimonial property or harta sepencarian, the transaction of
jual janji where the land made as security to get the money in specific period, and the
pulang belanja where a man maybe does not own the land but he can work on it as long as it
benefit the public.

Introduction.

The introduction of the new land law system by English colonizer ended the implementation
of Islamic Land Law and opened the new history of land law to our country, Malaysia. Two
system that been brought by the Englishman into this country are Torrens System and English
Deeds System. Our topic discussion will be on the principles of mirror and curtain in Torrens
system.

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The Torrens System was originated from South Australia, drafted by the then Sir Robert
Torrens. This system ensured the indefeasibility of title to the land registration and its
transaction where it overcomes the uncertainty in land proprietorship. The land title will be
formally provided in duplicate, one will remained with the Land Office or Land Registry
Office, while the another one will be kept by the land owner. So, from here we do understand
that the Torrens System involves the registration of title.

The Torrens System consists two main principles which made it based entirely on
registration, known as mirror principle and curtain principle. Mirror principle shows the title
functioned as a mirror that informs every important item about the land to any relevant
parties that involved such as purchaser-to-be or mortgagee-to-be.

Meanwhile, the curtain principle referred the title as the curtain where any parties that
involved in the land transaction only required to depend on all information contain in it so
there is no need for them to find other information except from the title. These dual principles
form the concept of indefeasibility of title that been clearly recognized in the Section
340(1) of National Land Code 1965.

In Torrens System, the land administration works effectively and efficiently without any
distraction. Land dealings such as transfer, lease, mortgage, lien and easement will be
registered in the title which assists the government to control or detect any doubt in land
dealing that may lead to the speculation in land transaction. People that involved in land
dealings do not have to waste too much time in title search. The Land Office or Land
Registry Office has the duplicate of titles with them so it will ease the people involved. In the
case of land acquisition where the government has to acquire any possible land for the
purpose of public benefit, the government will pays the compensation for those whose land is
affected by the acquisition.