Discrimination against an illegitimate child according to law and society

Abstract

The status on the legitimacy of a child has been an on-going issue in Malaysia for a long time whereby an illegitimate child is considered as filius nullius or the son of nobody under the law. Their status are also different compare to a legitimate child whereby an illegitimate child is only left with their mother’s wealth and none of their father’s. The impact of illegitimacy on a child born out of wedlock does not only concern the society’s view on them but also their rights to inherit paternal wealth or in some cases it might affect the child’s right to a name, identity and nationality. The objective of this writing is to understand the rights of an illegitimate child in Malaysia and the discrimination faced by them from the society. In order to find out more, a historical approach is done in order to understand the history and to analyse the situation of an illegitimate child before this. This discussion looks into the status, rights, impacts and relief of status of an illegitimate child in Malaysia. In achieving the objective mentioned, this discussion referred to primary and secondary sources e.g. books, articles and cases. Then, based on the materials, it is analysed critically which resulted to the findings on the issue of an illegitimate child, their statuses, impacts and relief of status under the law.