How can legal education in Indonesia become more relevant for graduates who will work in contexts of legal pluralism, aiming for social justice and providing legal services that common citizens need?
Proyek PINTAL adalah kolaborasi antara peneliti-peneliti dari Van Vollenhoven Institute (VVI) yang fokus mengkaji tentang Indonesia dan Fakultas Hukum Universitas Gadjah Mada yang mengajar hukum adat atau terlibat dalam penelitian tentang hukum adat, pluralisme hukum serta hukum dan masyarakat. PINTAL adalah akronim dari proyek ini, namun juga dalam Bahasa Indonesia, pintal berarti “berputar”. Proyek kolaborasi ini bertujuan agar para peneliti “memutar” penelitian dan proyek kepenulisan mereka ke dalam satu kabel kuat yang akan mendukung inovasi pendidikan hukum di Indonesia. Selain itu, keberadaan proyek ini juga sekaligus mendukung Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) khususnya poin ke 4 yaitu Pendidikan Berkualitas. Proyek ini akan dilaksanakan dari tahun 2023 sampai dengan tahun 2025.
Follow-up of SLEEI
The project Strengthening Legal Education in Eastern Indonesia (SLEEI, 2019-2022) focused on 5 themes including “law in local context”. Adat (Customary) law is important in the daily lives of many Indonesians and a main constituent of ‘law in local context’ which refers to the local mix resulting from legal pluralism in a specific area. Meanwhile, in Indonesian Law Faculties teaching about adat law is commonly done in a doctrinal style, as a single subject, with emphasis on the structure of this legal system, definitions of the central concepts, the internal rules and their consistency and ample attention to how all this was developed in the past (Simarmata, 2018 ). The blind spots in this approach include how adat works in present day societies, and how it articulates with other normative systems.
A second approach in SLEEI was not to just focus on improving the mandatory adat law courses, but instead regard ‘law in local context” from the perspective of socio legal studies. Experience in SLEEI indicated that in the regions in Eastern Indonesia law graduates are working in all kinds of positions in and outside the government where they face the increasing societal problems that call for tailor-made solutions in the field of law, for example land acquisition by large extractive industries, but also changing perceptions on how to solve disputes within families. Law graduates need the capacity to see which norms and rules are most prominent locally, and which institutions are most active in keeping local peace and justice. The picture shows legal pluralism, a mixture of state law, customary law, religious law, and rules and norms from other sources like big companies, and international treaties that are known locally through direct communication or via social media.
PINTAL’s challenge
In this second line of thought, the challenge in innovating legal education is to find a way to teach about “local law” (hukum lokal). Legal education on local law requires sound understanding of what legal pluralism is and skills to be able to see what the various normative systems entail and how they articulate. In depth knowledge about adat law in general and historically is still required, while it should be enhanced with research on how adat law in specific areas has changed and to which extent (and which fields of local life) its norms and rules are respected.
Innovation towards a law and society approach is not a matter of ideology but a societal necessity given the character of the many new issues and problems that common Indonesian citizens in the whole country face and for which they need help from experts educated at Law Faculties.
PINTAL activities
PINTAL is a two year project aimed at opening up the discussions on legal education in the field of adat law as part of a wider movement towards a law and society approach. Planned activities are: pendidikan hukum di bidang hukum adat sebagai bagian dari gerakan yang lebih luas menuju pendekatan hukum dan masyarakat. Kegiatan-kegiatan yang direncanakan antara lain:
- Publishing a co-authored articles that will stimulate critical discussion in Indonesian Law Faculties
- Organize a panel or round table in the Socio-legal Studies Conference in Jakarta in October 2024 roundtable dalam Konferensi Studi Sosio-Legal di Jakarta pada bulan Oktober 2024,
- Initiate the process for writing a Textbook for teaching Adat Law in context. Making a book proposal, and composing a team of editors.
- Act as discussion forum for individual researchers’ projects that can contribute to innovating teaching about adat law
Partner Institutes in This Project
The Van Vollenhoven Institute of Leiden Law School owes its name to Cornelis van Vollenhoven who was appointed in 1901 as professor in “The Adat-law of the Netherlands-Indies” and in “The Public- and Administrative Law of the Netherlands-Indies” at Leiden University. He “was the architect of adat-law studies. His whole life he dedicated himself to achieving the political recognition of adat-law, and championed against the misinterpretation of adat law, against plans of codification and unification of laws, against so-called ‘codebook jurists-law’, ‘civil servant-law’ and ‘fantasy-law’ Now, more than a century later, the VVI seeks to develop and disseminate socio-legal knowledge and theory regarding the interaction between law, governance and society. The VVI relies on conceptual frameworks that relate to the rule of law, access to justice and legal pluralism.codebook jurists-law’, ‘civil servant-law’, dan ‘fantasy-law’. Kini, lebih dari satu abad setelahnya, VVI berupaya mengembangkan dan menyebarluaskan pengetahuan dan teori sosio-legal mengenai interaksi antara hukum, tata Kelola pemerintahan, dan masyarakat. VVI mengandalkan kerangka kerja konseptual yang berhubungan dengan supremasi hukum, akses terhadap keadilan dan pluralisme hukum.
The Djojodigoeno Study Center at the Law Faculty of Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta (Indonesia) is “an epistemic institution that focuses on the development and upgrading of the Customary Law in the pluralism of the Indonesian Law frame”. By the multidisciplinary approach, especially on the socio-legal, Djojodigoeno Center does its research, study, and dissemination of thinking that pushes the knowledge in customary law as normative order that is dynamic and dialectic. Established from the UGM’s long tradition of thinking in Customary law studies, the Center also encourages discourse and critically examines the issues in national law development along with the recognition and protection of the Customary law community’s rights in Indonesia and in the global scope.
Individual threads in PINTAL
Jacqueline Vel, senior researcher at the Van Vollenhoven Institute of Leiden Law School on the theme of law, governance and society in Indonesia. She coordinator at VVI of the PINTAL project. Co-Author of the double special issue: (2019) “Changing Indigeneity Politics in Indonesia: From Revival to Projects.”
Adriaan Bedner, Professor of Law and Society in Indonesia at the Van Vollenhoven Institute for Law, Governance and Society. He is also Head of Department of the Van Vollenhoven Institute. Author of: (2021), “Legal pluralism in pursuit of social justice: Cornelis van Vollenhoven and the continued relevance of his legacy in contemporary Indonesia”
Rikardo Simarmata, director of the Djodjodigoeno Institute, lecturer of agrarian law at UGM. Author of:2018) “Pendekatan Positivistik Dalam Studi Hukum Adat” (The Positivistic Approach in the Study of Adat Law).
Tody Sasmitha Jiwa Utama, PhD candidate at the Van Vollenhoven Institute on the subject: State Deployment of Adat (Customary) Law in Indonesia. He is a lecturer at the Department of Adat (Customary) Law and a researcher at Adat Law Research Center "Djojodigoeno" in Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM), Indonesia. Author of: (2019), “Impediments to Establishing Adat Villages: A Socio-Legal Examination of the Indonesian Village Law”.
R. Yando Zakaria is anthropologist and expert on adat law in Indonesia and experienced activist in the indigenous peoples movement. During his visit to the KITLV from October to December 2023, Yando will finalize a book on the indigenous movement in Indonesia. Co-Author of the edited volume: (2019) Meninjau Ulang Pengaturan Hak Adat (reviewing customary rights arrangements). PSA IPB; 2019 Dec 25.
Almonika Cindy Fatika Sari, secretary of Djojodigoeno Adat Law Center, lecturer at the Adat Law Department of UGM, specialized in Legal pluralism, Access to justice, Traditional knowledge related to disaster risk reduction and Food studies. Author of (2022) “Acknowledgment of Adat Law-Based Tenure in the Courtroom: Study of Decisions on Criminal Acts of Land Clearing by Burning, Logging Trees Without Permits, and Collecting Plantation Products Without Permits”.2022), “Acknowledgment of Adat Law-Based Tenure in the Courtroom: Study of Decisions on Criminal Acts of Land Clearing by Burning, Logging Trees Without Permits, and Collecting Plantation Products Without Permits”.
External funding for Individual Projects
- PhD Research project funded by the Indonesian Ministry of Education through LPDP (Utama)
- PhD Research project funded by the Indonesian Ministry of Education through LPDP (Utama)
- Fellowship from the Ford Foundation in Jakarta (Zakaria)
Author: Jacqueline Vel and Almonika Cindy Fatika Sari
