Pluralistic legal system, pluralistic human rights?: teenage pregnancy, child marriage and legal institutions in Bali

Abstract

This article examines how the existence of multiple legal orders can impact the defense of human rights, by discussing how state legal agents in Bali navigate state law through local concerns and adat (customary) law in cases dealing with teenage pregnancy outside of marriage. In such “emergencies” where the morality of the community is at stake, families, adat authorities and state agents collaborate to find a way to fit these emergency situations into the locally accepted normative system, resulting in what international institutions call “child marriage.” In assessing the interaction between state law and customary law, this study offers a basis for discussing how legal pluralism should be addressed in the realization of human rights.