Mapping Adat and Islamic Law Continuum: The Bliss of Indonesian Pluralism?

Abstrack:

Everywhere in the post-colonial era, the phenomenon of adat (customary) law has always been the subject commonly augmented in the discussion of legal pluralism. Triangular relationship of customary, religious and statutory laws is a plausible starting point to understand the continuum between non-state normative orderings and the state one. Indeed, adat law had been shaped by conquests and migrations for centuries. In explaining the legal complexity of Java, for example, Clifford Geertz described it as the product of the encounters of an original group of settlers from South China and north Vietnam with India states, Chinese trading communities, Islamic missionaries, Dutch and British colonizers, Japanese occupation forces, and presently the Indonesian state. Our understanding of adat law has thus never been separated from the fact of its relationship with other legal traditions found living side by side. The history of adat law has however been described as the story full of class and dissonance. The old Dutch jurist, Ter Haar, since early twentieth century has showed the long list of conflicts between adat law and Islamic law in the indigenous community of the archipelago. This kind of awkward relationship between the two legal traditions has in fact been continued unabatedly until today, disregarding the many values of convergences and efforts of adjustments to reapproach the two laws.

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