Public Lecture
In the midst of Pluralism and Modernization: The Existence of Traditional Institutions, Comparative Experience from Afghanistan and Indonesia
October 30, 2018, Faculty of Law, UGM in cooperation with Legal Education Support Program-Afghanistan (LESPA) holding a public lecture with the title In the midst of Pluralism and Modernization: The Existence of Traditional Institutional, Comparative Experience from Afghanistan and Indonesia. The lecture was given by Dr. Haroun Rahimi (Assistant Professor at Law, Herat University who obtained his LL.M. and Ph.D. from School of Law, University Washington) and Dr. Rikardo Simarmata (Lecturer at Agrarian Department, Head of Djojodiguno Adat Research Center, Faculty of Law, UGM, who holds his Ph.D. from Leiden University). Laras Susanti (Lecturer at Civil Law Department, Faculty of Law, UGM) was acting as the moderator. Attended by master and undergraduate programs students and lecturers from both countries, the discussion was very lively and fruitful. Dr. Haroun presented his research with title Grounded Institutional Reform: Creating Effective Institutions, analyzing the effectiveness of traditional institutions in Afghanistan’s commerce. He emphasized that in commerce, the nature of merchants to gain benefits from transaction is unavoidable. There should be grounded institutional reform to create effective institutions. Notably, formalization might lead to potential abuse of power by corrupt officials. Meanwhile, Dr. Rikardo’s presentation focuses on Customary (adat) law and pluralistic legal order in Indonesia. He analyzed land cases in explaining how has the Indonesia land law which based on adat law responded to modernization. Questions and comments from participants were covered topics from how to resolve conflict between informal and state laws, alternative dispute mechanism provided by traditional institutions and the urgency to invite government in the development of traditional institutions. (LS)
