The Legal Discussion on “The Existence of Legal Technology in Indonesia: Opportunities and Challenges” was opened by Araya Anggara Putra, S.H., Executive Secretary of the Center for Law, Technology, RegTech & LegalTech Studies (CTRL) UGM. In his opening remarks, he expressed the hope that the discussion would broaden participants’ knowledge of law and technology in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The discussion was also expected to expand perspectives on legal technology and encourage the development of new legal technology products in Indonesia in line with advancements in technology and legal studies.
Following the opening remarks, the discussion continued with presentations from two speakers.
The first speaker was Evandri Pantouw, S.H., CEO of Indexalaw and Organizer of Jakarta Legal Hacker. He explained that Indonesia already has several draft regulations concerning law and technology, including the RPP E-Commerce, P2P Lending Regulation, and Information and Technology Regulation. These drafts have existed since 2014 but have yet to be fully implemented. He further explained that the integration of technology into the legal field could significantly simplify everyday activities through digitalization. For example, document management could become more organized, access to legal consultations could be facilitated through chatbots, and in Singapore, the establishment of a limited liability company can reportedly be completed within three hours because the entire application process can be conducted online.
He also discussed technological reforms in the legal sector, including artificial intelligence, blockchain, cryptography, computer vision, natural language processing, machine learning, and geographic information systems. Although these technologies may appear to create new legal issues, they can also make the work of legal professionals more efficient. Cryptography and blockchain, for example, can help ensure the authenticity of electronic transactions. Other applications include electronic discovery, which can identify relevant legal materials using keywords; legal research; and practice management. RegTech can assist users in finding regulations and identifying specific requirements that must be fulfilled, while SupTech can support regulators in verifying processes, such as conducting credit-related Know Your Customer (KYC) checks. Before the second speaker began his presentation, participants were given an opportunity to ask questions and discuss the issues raised by the first speaker.
The second speaker was Dr. Wahyu Yun Santoso, S.H., M.Hum., LL.M., a lecturer at the Faculty of Law, Universitas Gadjah Mada. He explained that Indonesia is currently facing the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which presents an important opportunity for the country to adapt to technological change. One example is the implementation of the Online Single Submission (OSS) system, which is intended to simplify various administrative processes, including the establishment of a limited liability company. However, he noted that the system has not yet operated optimally due to limited infrastructure in some regions. He also referred to a simulation conducted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States in 2016 involving a natural language processing application that had been trained on 10,000 contracts. MIT invited five lawyers from five prominent law firms and instructed them to compete with the technology in analyzing the contracts. The research reportedly showed that the lawyers required more time to provide analyses, recommendations, and identify errors in the contracts than the technology. From this perspective, technology may increasingly outperform humans in certain legal tasks. Although the development of technology can be delayed through legal intervention, technological innovation will continue to develop around existing legal barriers. Following the second presentation, the discussion continued with a question-and-answer session. The event was then concluded by Araya Anggara Putra, who delivered the closing remarks and summary of the discussion, followed by the presentation of plaques to the two speakers.
