The Phenomenon of Legal Exception in Indonesian Legal Pluralism:

Bali, as a province with strong roots in local cultural traditions and significant economic importance for Indonesia, is striving to balance modernity and tradition, economics, especially mass tourism, and cultural identity. This is why Universitas Warmadewa, one of the largest Balinese universities, chooses the theme ‘Local Wisdom and Business Law’ for its international conferences each year.As a non-Indonesian legal scholar, this theme presents two challenges for me. Firstly, I am not an expert in tourism economics and can only approach the topic from a traditional market law perspective, theoretically. Secondly, the terms used in Indonesian legal discussions may seem vague and unclear from a German perspective, as the legal discussion in Indonesia integrates traditional legal phenomena pragmatically into the applicable legal system. This may also be historically conditioned because since independence Indonesia has to handle a legal pluralism in law, which also finds its cause in the legacy of the colonial era.When speaking on the legal perspective of ‘local wisdom’, several questions are unclear to me:What exactly is local wisdom and how can it be defined?Where does it fit into the Indonesian legal system?What role can local wisdom play in contemporary law?Local wisdom may be understood as part of traditional customary law or Adat, at least in terms of its influence on legal issues, as the conference theme suggests. The terminology around ‘customary law’, ‘Adat’, ‘indigenous law’, or ‘living law’ is still a problematic issue in Indonesian scientific discussion and should only be briefly mentioned in this presentation. The term ‘Adat law’ was originally not used in Indonesian society and was first systematically used by the Dutch. Van Vollenhoven, considered the ‘father of Indonesian Adat law’ by Indonesian scholars, defined Adat law as law that is not based on codified legal rules from the legislator. This definition is still used by contemporary Indonesian scholars. Adat law in this sense contains sanctions, making the character of ‘law’. It was characterized by Van Vollenhoven as dynamic and flexible folk law, which combines the term with the often-used term of ‘living law’. There are numerous discussions in Indonesian literature about Indonesian customary law, its functions, and significance, but the terminology has not been clearly defined and the role of religious law is also subject to numerous publications.Therefore, having read various contributions on the topic, I am left confused because some of them discuss the existence of legal principles of living customary law and describe them as “national Indonesian principles,” which can replace parts of the post-colonial Indonesian law, but they do not clearly identify these principles. The topic seems to be of almost patriotic importance to Indonesia, making it particularly difficult for foreign scholars to approach the subject in presentations before Indonesian colleagues. My contribution should be seen in light of this difficulty, as a first observation of the phenomenon from a foreign perspective.The term Adat is already difficult to comprehend, and this is even more true for the term “local wisdom” in a legal context. So, what is the “Local Wisdom” that I am asked to talk about? The Terms of Reference of our conference describe the meaning of “local wisdom” mainly as the clash of market actors in local Balinese tourism that can lead to conflicts, which the law should resolve. These conflicts are said to occur because local communities and institutions, based on a kind of traditionally grown trust, seek to build and maintain their business relationships in the tourism industry. This trust, which one could call “traditional good faith,” meets the need to regulate contractual arrangements more formally in terms of contract law (“more official...instead of just relying on promises or good faith”).In this sense, local wisdom is an aspect of good faith. Based on this understanding of the term, I have no systematic issues with the term “local wisdom.” However, it should be noted that good faith and contract, as a predictable shaping of legal relationships between market actors, should not be seen as opposites. It is possible and necessary to resolve disruptions in contractual relationships in light of good faith and, if necessary, adapt contractual regulations. Here, “local wisdom” should not be understood as a unique source of good faith, but as a general aspect that can influence the expectations of the contracting parties and their trust in shaping the law. This raises the question of which factors should be taken into account by the non-local contracting party in good faith, and which should not. It is a question of the concrete assessment of the structure of interests and the balance of the contract, how to allocate risk and assign external aspects to the contracting parties and which aspects should be considered subsequently.This is a theoretical matter, and it is unlikely to play a significant role in practice since local market actors and communities have the freedom, within the framework of private autonomy, to incorporate their traditional interests into the contract negotiations. This allows for traditional interests to participate in the “equivalence justice” of the contract. However, if the traditional interests of the local community result in unacceptable consequences for the contract’s execution, the question of whether these reasons can lead to a change in the contract’s basis may arise. In civil law systems, the clausula rebus sic stantibus is regulated as a limitation of the pacta sunt servanda principle and falls under the principle of good faith (bona fides). If the invocation of “local wisdom” by one party leads to the other party having to agree to an adjustment, it would have to be examined.I would like to give you an example of this, which seems credible even if no prove about the issue can be delivered due to the ‘popular’ source: A person without Indonesian citizenship acquired the right to use a plot of land with a house in Bali ten years ago. Since foreigners cannot acquire land ownership in Indonesia themselves, the foreigner had agreed on a legal arrangement with an Indonesian citizen resident in Bali, in which the Indonesian acquired ownership (hak milik) of the land with the foreigner’s money and agreed on right to use for the foreign partner. After ten years, the foreigner wanted to sell the property again to move to his country of origin. The agreement with the Indonesian partner stipulated that the Indonesian partner must agree to the sale of the plot on the wish of the foreign partner and would receive 10% of the sale amount in the event of a sale. In the case described, however, the Indonesian partner seems to have refused to sell the property on the agreed terms. He was not satisfied with the 10% share and demanded a 70% share instead. As justification for this, he argued that the contract terms should be changed because he had spiritually enhanced the property over the years through certain religious rituals and this required a revaluation of his shareholding.It is not known whether the case was heard in an Indonesian court and how it was finally settled. Assuming the case had occurred as described, from the perspective of Indonesian civil law, it is clear that no change in the business basis of the contract occurred as a result of the Indonesian partner’s spiritual acts, which can lead to an adjustment of the agreement between him and the foreign contractual partner. Just as local communities depend on their interests in cultural identity being taken into account even in legal relations with partners coming from outside, foreign investors must be able to rely on certain standards of contractual obligation. The principle of good faith would be grotesquely overstretched if local contracting partners could use fuzzy notions of ‘local wisdom’ to make contractual arrangements more flexible in their favour.Another example of the clash between traditional legal customs and supra-regional legal ideas in highly traditional markets with supra-regional economic importance, such as Bali, is the handling of legal disputes and methods of dispute resolution. The trust of traditional communities in supra-legal ties of interest in business relationships, as mentioned in the Terms of Reference to this Conference, meets a systemic trust in formal contractual regulations of non-local actors. The reference points of trust of the respective groups of market actors thus differ. This also affects dispute resolution. According to Sulastriyono, the voluntary character of traditional customary law has the advantage over civil law methods of litigation and dispute resolution of a ‘win-win’ solution, which leads to greater acceptance of the solution by the parties to the conflict. In theory, this is undeniable. However, it is questionable whether this acceptance can also be achieved among contract participants who do not originate from the respective culture, because the existence of sufficient advantages for a party may well depend on the integration of the party in the respective local society. Moreover, the indisputable advantages of consensual dispute resolution can also be well integrated in state procedural law via mediation mechanisms.Cases such as the one outlined one above would in principle be likely to erode the confidence of foreign investors in Indonesian law in general if courts do not rule clearly and draw clear boundaries here. The example seems to be a particularly extreme case, but it shows how important it is to clearly determine the meaning and possible role of terms such as ‘local wisdom’ and ‘tradition’ for use in law. Culturally related aspects are prone to serve as a tool for discrimination against individuals and companies that do not belong to the respective cultural environment. The difficulty, for example, of establishing an intellectual property right on cultural heritage follows not only from the contrast between individual subjective rights and collective subjective rights. It follows above all from the problem of determining the collective rights holders who are to benefit from ‘their’ cultural heritage. Who is a member of a certain culture? Is there a generational link or does it depend on the integration of the individual into his or her living environment? If the legal system does not want to fall back to abstruse considerations of ‘blood identity’, what remains is the assignment of such claims to territorial authorities or the state itself, whose task it is to protect cultural diversity on its territory. This is the path that the Indonesian legislature had taken in Art 38 Law No 28/2014 on copyright law.The misuse of cultural aspects carried into the application of law is also visible in another aspect: In another paper I have pointed out the problem that the concept of traditional customary law in Indonesian law and the position of Adat law in the hierarchy of norms seems in need of clarification. Shidarta notes that there is no sufficient clarity about the relationship between Adat law and state law and thus no consistent system of Indonesian law as a whole. Accordingly, the maturation of an independent Indonesian legal system suffers to this day from the internal conflict with the colonial legacy of existing state law based on Dutch civil law and the lack of a consistent overarching pluralistic concept of law. This is seen by Shidarta as a major reason why the systematic positions of customary law, Islamic law and western law within national law are not clearly defined and why a clear hierarchical determination of the various sources of law in relation to national law is lacking. The doubts about the systematic location and certainly also the failure to establish the principles of traditional customary law as original Indonesian law after the attainment of independence instead of the sources of law inherited from the colonial period are probably due - in addition to the idea of the state founders of an Indonesian unitary state (‘eenheidstaat’) - above all to the disagreement about the concept of customary law, which is formally understood in the sense of a binding source of law defined during the colonial period, or as post-colonial Adat law in the sense of traditional customary rights of various Indonesian ethnic groups either with a binding character or as norms of social order based on voluntariness. In this respect, too, different definitions of the term can be found in the literature:There is thus generally a more philosophical recognition of the importance of traditional customary law in the sense that customary law reflects the actual sense of law of the people and the Indonesian people as a nation. The latter statement seems problematic to me because the statement only applies with regard to the significance of customary law as a source of law, but not to the content of the individual customary laws of the various ethnic groups, in which different legal customs apply in each case. It therefore seems questionable to me whether Adat law can be understood in the sense of an alternative to Indonesian state law. In my opinion, Adat as a source of concrete legal norms has a supplementary development perspective in the communal area. Here it can certainly have an influence on economic life in the regions if it is applied consistently and transparently, and its importance would grow especially if the autonomy of municipal territorial units were strengthened, and a strong federalism were developed. However, a scientific inventory of norms and principles of local customary law is then required, and a clear formulation of such norms is needed, because it must be ruled out that the invocation of undefined, non-transparent or arbitrarily formulated Adat rules unduly restricts the freedom of market actors and are used as protectionist instruments in the provinces.In this sense, I believe that the postulate that Indonesian law must simply recognise Adat law as it has grown and as it is applied alive within the Indonesian local societies falls short, because the compatibility of social rules based on voluntariness and constantly changing with the overall legal system based on the rule of law is at least debatable. In other words: either one renounces the legal certainty and predictability of legal norms in the area of traditional customary law. This could then constitute a breach of the constitutionally enshrined principle of the Rule of Law. Or one formulates clear norms based on traditional legal principles, which have the character of binding legal norms and applies them in the sense of subsidiarity in the local environment with priority over central state law in certain predefined aspects. Then the rules of the hierarchy of norms must be correspondingly clear. However, the question of the hierarchy of norms then no longer presents itself as a problem of the nature of Adat or customary law because the latter would have lost its character as actual customary law. The advocates of a strong recognition of Adat by state law will, however, reject this path because they see the advantage of traditional customary law over state law precisely in its flexibility and ability to change. This flexibility would no longer be readily available through an integration of traditional principles into a local classical law in the sense of imperative norms.A clear hierarchy of norms defined by constitutional law seems indispensable, because such local customary law cannot displace state law without further ado, but only if the principle of subsidiarity and the better regulation of local circumstances by local law indicates otherwise. This would also be in line with the philosophical assessment of local customary law as the law that best captures the living conditions of the people in its cultural area of application. The importance of the principle of subsidiarity should generally be given more attention in the discussion on legal pluralism in Indonesia. This can not only ensure greater recognition of traditional customary law, but also enable the transparency necessary for the predictability of the law.Insofar as Adat is to be understood as the source of ‘abstract normative’ aspects, as certain common Indonesian legal values and principles in the sense of a ‘pan-Indonesian’ legal order and, as such, is to find its way into an independent state Indonesian civil law, legal scholarship in Indonesia will also have to identify and clearly define these principles. In doing so, it will be necessary to determine which principles of traditional customary law in the various regions of the archipelago are suitable as overarching legal principles, so that they can possibly have an identity-forming effect in a national private law. This difficult process might lead to reform of the Indonesian Civil Law which meets the special requirements of a socially and culturally integrated legal system.Indonesia as a state with a unified internal market needs a cross-cultural private law and commercial law. Consideration of the interests of local communities and traditions is of importance in a multicultural state. The Indonesian constitution therefore emphasises the specifics of traditional rights and thus guarantees Adat its own status in the legal system. However, there seems to be a lack of a clear hierarchy of norms in the legal system and a clear definition of the nature of Adat. A hint of a certain hierarchy between Adat and state law is indeed found in agricultural law (Art. 5 Law No. 5/1960 on the Basic Regulations of Agrarian Principles) and in forestry law (Law No. 41/1999 on Forestry). Adat is recognised here but must harmonise with state law. It is therefore likely to be in a relationship of subsidiarity to state law. The fundamental assertion of the primacy of state law over other co-existing legal systems is also in line with the view of Indonesian legal scholars such as Sunaryati Hartono. Referring to Griffiths’ formulation of “weak legal pluralism”, where co-existing legal systems are subordinated to a dominant formalistic national law, it can be stated that the Indonesian legal system follows this model.In my opinion, the integration of traditional customary law into the legal system should not be done as a mere tolerance of state law towards deviating regulations of facts in certain regions. From my perspective as a foreign observer, this seems to lead to significant problems for the development of the Indonesian economy and for investment. In particular, this seems to me to be the case for Bali. Local Wisdom can be incorporated into the contractual relations of the parties within the framework of private autonomous arrangements. A ‘creative’ qualification of protectionist measures against outside market actors or the justification of the failure to sanction breaches of contract or violations of law against outsiders as ‘Adat’ or ‘protection of local traditions’ should be consistently avoided.Incidentally, it seems to me that in contract law there is no real opposition between state law and traditional customary law. Either the parties trust each other, in which case state law does not prevent an agreement based on good faith. Or they do not, in which case only state contract law can lead to proper solutions. The same applies to traditional dispute resolution methods, to which the parties to the conflict can easily submit. In contrast, the integration of customary law as independent Indonesian legal principles or as legal norms at the local or municipal level into Indonesian law would require considerable academic effort. For this, the principles concerned would have to be clearly identified, systematised, and formulated to be able to substantiate a claim to validity beyond the respective local communities. The mere reference to historically evolved convictions of local communities is too vague. The term ‘local wisdom’ seems to me to be problematic in this sense to accurately describe the question of the collision of traditional customs and expectations of outside market actors, especially since it is already conceptually positively evaluative. Finally, it should not be forgotten, that the continental European codifications are culturally neutral and in big parts based on the Roman law. Roman law itself was not developed under the cultural framework of northern and middle European regions, however it served well as source for the modern European codifications. These codifications are working fine until these days in different nations without obvious incompatibilities with local traditions. The amount of a ‘Volksgeist’ after the idea of Friedrich Carl von Savigny within the Private Law does not play a big role in the contemporary discussion as law should be seen in a pragmatic way as a viable tool to organize the modern society. Indonesia is an important economically emerging nation. As such it might be a good idea to keep an internationally compatible private law, which might be carefully adapted to certain peculiarities of the Indonesian society. The use of general clauses as entrance doors for local legal convictions seems to be a good way for that and a clearly defined legal hierarchy with a constitutionally based legal subsidiarity principle seems important. In contrast, the foundation of modern law on nationalistic, local, or indigenous traditional customs should only be done with extreme caution, if at all. The contemporary discussion on the role of Adat in Indonesian law shows the great difficulty of determining viable legal rules that can enter a future reformed Indonesian private law as ‘originally Indonesian’. The criticism against Von Savigny’s ‘Volksgeist’ idea also applies here: Defining who the ‘people’ are and what constitutes their common identity is already hardly rationally possible in a non-multi-ethnic state, even more in a multi-ethnic state. National identity-forming circumstances are hardly suitable as common principles for pluralistic societies.

This article explores the position of customary law before state law and Catholic religious law regarding marriage in Mangggarai, Flores, Indonesia. This study applied a critical analytic approach. This study found that the legal position of Manggarai adat concerning marriage is weaker and tends to be marginalized. It happened because state law explicitly Law No. 1 of 1974 concerning Marriage merely accepting the legality of marriage based on religious law and not customary law. Meanwhile, religious law, in this case, Catholicism, does not provide space for customary law in matters of marital legality. As a result, many married couples who have been bound their marriage according to customary law experienced injustice as their marriage was considered illegitimate according to religious and state law. However, this research found many positive contributions of customary law to the process, legality, and integrity of marriage. Therefore, this study recommends that the Indonesian Marriage Law and Catholic Religious Law need to accommodate customary law in marriage, taking into account human rights and justice principles. Both laws need to be revised so that they can place local customary law in an equal position.

<p><em>This article departs from the interlegality of marriage laws in Jambi society today, which discusses sumbong marriages. Sumbong marriage itself is a marriage that is legal according to religion, state, and custom. However, the ability to marry sumbong itself is considered valid by carrying out a customary settlement first, which was initially prohibited by customary law. The prohibition on marriage in Indonesia is contained in Article 8 of Law Number 1 of 1974 concerning Marriage and Article 39 of the Compilation of Islamic Law. Departing from this phenomenon, the author tries to examine the writing, which includes the implementation of marriage law in the Jambi community, the legal pluralism of the Jambi community, and the interlegality of customary, religious and state law in the marriage law of the Jambi community. The type of research carried out by the author is field research (Field Research) with qualitative methods. The nature of this research is analytical descriptive research. The approach used by the authors is a sociological empirical approach with interlegality. The author's findings clearly show that legal interactions in this tradition involve interactions between several laws, including religious, state, and customary laws used in sumbong marriage practices. By applying the legal interlegality theory approach, customary law, state law, and religious law become one unit. The concept of interlegality is found in adopting the values contained in the sumbong marriage tradition, whether based on state law, Islamic law, or Jambi customary law. This adoption process is based on the characteristics of the Jambi community's legal identity and its social environment, which is still steeped in customs, and the community also upholds the norms that apply in society and adheres firmly to "adat basandi syarak, syarak basandi kitabullah. "</em></p>

This study explores the complexity of marriage for people in Manggarai. Since they are citizens of the cultural community of Manggarai, Indonesian citizens, and members of a Catholic community, their marriage is required to follow the provisions of customary law, religious law, and state law. Using a library and ethnographic approaches, the study compares these laws on the legality of marriage and analyzes their differences and the impacts on the rights and obligations of married couples and children born to the couple. The study discovered that the differences in the provisions regarding the validity of a marriage between the three laws have provided space for the emergence of legal uncertainty and discriminatory treatment of customary marriages which are not legalized by religious law and state law as well as marriages that are divorced civilly but are still valid according to Catholic rules. Such a phenomenon is certainly a portrait of failure or incompetence in the attempt to unify marriage law in Indonesia through Law No. 1 of 1974 concerning Marriage. So it is urgent to have a more comprehensive new law that accommodates the wisdom of local customary law and provides protection for every citizen

Purpose: Religious (Islamic), state and customary laws in Indonesia offer the same concept with different indicators. Islam offers the aspects of religion, descent, wealth, and beauty as elements to be considered. The state adds the aspect of age as a physical and psychological consideration for couples facing marriage. Customary law accommodates all of them by requiring the requirement of customary social strata in marriage. The praxis dialogue of the three laws above in Sasak tribal society is the object of study in this research. Theoretical Framework: Equality in marriage is a religious teaching, some of which is also constructed in local cultural values. The meeting of religious and cultural values sometimes does not go hand in hand, and gets resistance from the community. Conflict theory, social change, and Islamic methodology are used as basic theories. Method: The research used qualitative descriptive-analytical method, by observing the words, actions, and feelings of the informants in the research. Documentation and interviews were used to find the deepest things object of the research. Results: The study found that the equality required in the Sasak traditional marriage system aims to maintain descendants well and intact. However, the social strata requirements imposed in Sasak society have an impact on injustice on the female side and ignore the value of equality between humans. Marriage with mandatory equal conditions in social strata is widely ignored and resisted by the community. Social changes that cover the education system, economy, politics, communication, culture, technology, and other elements of novelty are a trigger for dialogue and resistance to the mandatory requirement of equality in social strata in Sasak traditional marriage. Religion and the state safeguard the legal needs of the community based on equality, justice and partiality. Conclusions: In principle, both religious law (Islam), customary law and state law aims to protect citizens and help them to achieve the goals of marriage. However, the meeting of the local values of a particular culture with the universal values of religion and the state is often not in harmony. Local culture values are still restrained by the old culture (feudalism), while religious and state laws tend to be open. With the opening of access to education, the mindset of the community has changed, which is also in line with the accelerated development program in Lombok.

Child marriage remains a complex issue within Indonesia’s multicultural legal system. The lack of synchronization among state law, religious law, and customary law creates a significant space for legal contestation, particularly in the practices of marriage dispensation and marital validation (isbat nikah). This study aims to analyze the dynamics of legal contestation among these systems using a normative-empirical legal approach through the examination of legal documents, regulations, and critical legal literature. Employing John Griffiths’ theory of legal pluralism, the study reveals that the Indonesian state tends to adopt a form of weak legal pluralism, recognizing religious and customary laws only to the extent that they do not contradict state law. The primary academic contribution of this study lies in its detailed exploration of how local and religious norms influence judicial decisions regarding dispensation and marital validation—an area that has received limited critical scrutiny in previous studies, which largely focused on formal normative analysis. This research also highlights the inadequacy of uniform national legal policies in responding to the diversity of grassroots social norms. Therefore, it advocates for a reformulation of legal approaches that are more participatory and context-sensitive through inclusive dialogue among state authorities, religious leaders, and customary communities. Such an approach is essential to ensuring the fair and sustainable protection of children’s rights within an adaptive legal pluralism framework that reflects Indonesia’s social realities.

Customary Law and the Nationalist Project in Spain and Peru

This study explores the urgent need for reforms in Indonesia's land law system, specifically focusing on incorporating legal pluralism into the national legal framework. Utilizing a normative legal research method, the study scrutinizes primary and secondary legal documents, including the 1945 Indonesian Constitution, the Basic Agrarian Law, and the Job Creation Law, while also incorporating insights from related literature. The main finding indicates that although the Basic Agrarian Law (UUPA) has attempted to blend principles of customary and religious law into the national land law framework, its implementation still exhibits signs of weak legal pluralism, where state law dominates. This research suggests that adopting legal pluralism as a foundational principle in the UUPA could serve as a catalyst for fostering greater harmony between state and non-state laws, encouraging the development of policies that are more accountable and responsive to local realities. This holds significant implications in promoting agrarian justice and sustainability in land management in Indonesia, offering vital insights for ongoing legal reform efforts. Highlights: Inadequate integration of customary and religious law principles in the existing Basic Agrarian Law (UUPA). The potential of legal pluralism as a foundation to foster greater harmony between state and non-state laws. The urgent need for responsive policies that align with local realities to promote agrarian justice and sustainable land management in Indonesia. Keywords: Legal Pluralism, Land Law Reform, Agrarian Justice, Policy Development, Indonesian Constitution

In Adjudication in Religious Family Laws: Cultural Accommodation, Legal Pluralism, and Gender Equality in India, Gopika Solanki provides a convincing defence of the Indian policy of legal pluralism for governing marriage and divorce among Hindus and Muslims. The author contends that, by ‘‘split[ing] its adjudicative authority with social actors and organizations in the regulation of marriage and divorce among a sector of religious and caste group and the other actors’’ (p. 10), the Indian state simultaneously avoids leaning towards legal centralism and an essentialist version of legal pluralism. Solanki supports this claim with reference to state laws, societal laws, legal actors, and their interactions in formal and informal legal arenas. This ethnographically rich text begins by describing and explaining, a model of ‘shared adjudication’ (p. 10). The author contends that this model is unique to India. Founded on values of both state and customary law, this model focuses on state-society interactions and their relation to resolving conflicts in family, marriage and divorce. Although the state ‘‘does not relinquish its authority to govern the family’’ (p. 11), it shares the adjudicative authority with societal actors and institutions in order to avoid legal centralism. Similarly, even though the state recognizes both religious and customary laws—and provides an option to its citizen to opt out of religious laws—it avoids complete legal pluralism by expressively not establishing religious and customary courts and by enacting secular law to govern interreligious marriages. In Chapter 2, Solanki explains, how the dual functions of the shared adjudication model overcomes the classic state versus society/legal versus illegal dualism by opening up the possibility to make, unmake, or reform the fixed construction of religious memberships in diverse legal sites.

Abstract: The purpose of this study seeks to analyze the problem of Unity in Diversity as a Source of Politics and Cultural Identity of the Indonesian Nation in Legal Formation. In general, the process of establishing customary, national, regional and international law in various parts of the world no one knows even uses Bhineka Tunggal Ika as the source of legal formation. However, often the formation of law in Indonesia refers to the philosophical meaning of Unity in Diversity. The formulation of the research problem: 1) What are the markers of Unity in Diversity in Legal Formation ?; 2) Why is Bhineka Tunggal Ika so important in the Formation of Law in Indonesia ?; 3) Is there a contribution of Bhineka Tunggal Ika in the formation of customary law ? This research was completed using qualitative methods. All data in this study are descriptive which have been collected directly or indirectly. Data acquisition is optimized through a literature study. All data were analyzed qualitatively to solve the research problem. The results showed that: 1) Unity in Diversity can be a marker of Indonesian national cultural identity in Legal Pluralism; 2) Bhineka Tunggal Ika in the formation of state law is considered relevant as a political source that is able to accommodate Customary Law and Religious Law into State Law; 3) Unity in Diversity as the identity of Indonesian Nation Culture, as well as political sources, has contributed in the spirit of the formation of Customary Law in the midst of the times.

Interfaith marriage is one of the controversial legal issues in Indonesia. Islamic Law and Indonesian Positive Law regulate the conditions and pillars of marriage differently, especially concerning the legitimacy of marriage between adherents of different religions. This research aims to compare the provisions of Islamic Law and Indonesian Positive Law regarding the conditions and pillars of interfaith marriage in Indonesia. The two main variables of the research are the valid conditions of marriage and the pillars of marriage. Through a normative juridical approach and comparative law analysis, this research examines primary legal sources such as the Qur'an, Hadith, fiqh books, and legislation, as well as secondary data from literature studies and court decisions related to the issue. The research results show convergence and divergence in these two legal systems. Islamic Law is stricter in limiting interfaith marriage, especially for Muslim women. At the same time, Indonesian Positive Law provides more flexible interpretation through administrative mechanisms such as marriage registration and temporary religious conversion. This research highlights the importance of synergy between religious law and state law in addressing interfaith marriage issues in Indonesia, as well as the social and legal impacts arising from the differences in regulations. Thus, this research contributes to developing more comprehensive marriage regulations in Indonesia. Keywords: Interfaith marriage, Islamic Law, Positive Law, marriage requirements, pillars of marriage.

This paper introduces this Special Number. The work of the Project Group Legal Pluralism at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle aims to continue the rapid expansion of recent decades of studies of legal pluralism. The recently much discussed phenomenon of globalisation has provoked a wide variety of local responses. Encounters are occurring between state laws, transnational laws, customary laws and religious laws, all of which are liable as a result to be transformed by processes of adaptation, appropriation and vulgarisation. This may lead to increasing pluralisation of laws, but can also in some cases produce homogenisation, or de-pluralisation.The notion of ‘law’ should not be limited to state, international and transnational law, but should be used to refer to all those objectified cognitive and normative conceptions for which validity for a certain social formation is authoritatively asserted. Law becomes manifest in many forms, and is comprised of a variety of social phenomena. Constellations of legal pluralism may include legal systems, unnamed laws and religious laws. Within such a constellation elements of one legal order may change in various ways under the influence of another. Co-existing bodies of law may cover different geographical and political spaces, and longer temporal periods than are formally acknowledged. Inter-system demarcations also vary in complex ways in their form and in the uses to which social actors put them. Legal orders (and not only state laws) recognise or do not recognise other orders in varying ways, these constructions having potentially some influence on social actors, the nature and extent of which are empirical questions in each case.The emergence, maintenance and change of constellations of legal pluralism are thus the result of dynamic processes. Such processes are examined in this volume, and the following papers contain illustrations of all these issues.

Indonesia recognizes several legal systems i.e., state law, customary law, Islamic law, and international law. Islamic sharia in Aceh is part of legal pluralism in Indonesia. This study aims to discuss the application of Islamic sharia from the perspective of legal pluralism. This normative legal study employed a legal pluralism theory analysis. Legal pluralism is a theory that views law not only as positive or written law made by the state but also as a recognition of the legal reality that exists in a pluralistic society. The study collected data by means of a literature review. Findings revealed that Islamic sharia in Aceh as part of the recognition of the concept of legal pluralism has been implemented well in the context of state law, custom, and Islamic law. The state has provided juridical legitimacy through laws in the context of legal substance and judicial institutions or sharia courts. Likewise, revitalization has also occurred in traditional institutions in terms of customary law and customary justice. The argument emphasized in this study is that Islamic sharia in the context of legal pluralism has succeeded in manifesting legal harmonization between the state, custom, and Islamic law

The purpose of this study is to identify the role of the Freijer Compendium on marriage law in Indonesia. This research method uses normative legal research (doctrinal), a library research aimed at written regulations. In this case, it focuses on the main source, namely the Freijer Compendium manuscript, as well as literature related to marriage law in Indonesia. The results show that the Freijer’s Compendium influenced marriage law in Indonesia which is an integral part of fundamental human rights, because legal recognition and protection of the institution of marriage is essential in upholding the principles of equality and justice in society. Freijer's Compendium then shaped the general understanding of Islamic marriage and inheritance law in Indonesia and became the legal basis for the Ordonnantie op het Huwelijk van Inlanders (Bumiputera Marriage Ordinance) during the Dutch government which developed into the formation of Law No. 1 of 1974.

Customary law shapes South African and Indonesian culture and society. However, adopting customary marital law into national legal systems is difficult. These include value conflicts between regional traditions and positive law’s universal principles, such as recording marriages, protecting children, and ensuring gender equality. Within Indonesia’s legal system, customary law practices are not well accommodated. Customary law is acknowledged under South Africa’s constitution, however its application is fraught with difficulties. This study aims to (1) comprehend positive law and its correlation with customary marriage law, (2) analyze the difficulties of integrating customary marriage law with positive law in South Africa and Indonesia, and (3) evaluate the future prospects of this domain. The study’s findings and suggestions might foster a more equitable society and promote legislation that honors universal ideals and traditional customs. This comparative and qualitative study use normative legal techniques to analyze pertinent literature, legal concepts, and norms. This paper highlights the main barriers to merging positive and customary marriage legislation. Examples are administrative obstacles like marriage registration and customary norms that conflict with human rights. The proposed framework respects traditional values to uphold human rights and social fairness. Keywords include normative marriage law, positive law, social justice, gender equality, and legal integration.