In all Indonesia, perhaps no legal issue is more confused, more likely to excite intricate and lively debate among legal professionals and political activists both, than inheritance. This statement, however, was not enough to describe the complicated and complex issue of inheritance in Indonesia. The inheritance affair in Indonesia not only implicated legal professionals, activist, and academics, it also positioning itself as the fundamental of religion consciousness for the larger mass of Muslim, and at the same time drawing the incorporation between Islamic Law and the customary law, which then tried to perform the national law. Scholars had recognized the existence of customary law (named as Adat) and Islamic Law in Indonesia which coexisted
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7 Year 1989 which unleashed the choice of law that allowed individuals to choose between Civil, Customary, and Islamic Law to apply to their inheritance cases. However, a significant change occurred in 2006 when the government enacted the revision of the act. The new law imposed the Islamic Inheritance Law as the ultimate inheritance law for Indonesian Muslims. Under the latest religious act, Muslims are compelled to take the Islamic Inheritance Law as the only choice to resolve disputes in inheritance cases when they decided to appear in the court. Nevertheless, this provision has unsettled the issues that were previously addressed by the former pluralist choices of law regime since the application of Islamic Law in Indonesia sometimes deviates from its gender neutrality and favors males regarding the proportion of entitlement. For example, as Carranza notes, this could result in a full estate going to the brother of the deceased or the nearest adult male in the absence of a son, leaving any surviving daughters with nothing. This change resulted in women’s entitlements under inheritance law being adversely affected in comparison to the civil system that covered this issue …show more content…
Otherwise, the judges of Religious Courts are supposed to base their decisions on The Compilation regardless its official form. The compilation tried to elevate the equality issue and maintenance fairness between men and women by introducing several changes in Islamic law. These changes and those that resulted from several Indonesian Supreme Court decisions, such as Supreme Court Decision No. 184/K/AG/1995 and No. 184 K/AG/1995, do not carry much weight in the Indonesian Muslim community. For example, several religious court decisions were found to indicate complicated women’s experience over Kalala issue, such as case No 04/Pdt.P/2012/MS.Snb, Case No 002/Pdt.G/2015/MS-Sab, and Case No. 14/Pdt.P/2013/PA.BTM, which, contradicted one another. Those cases were found in separate places in Indonesia and led to the assumption that it might be based on Adat influence in each
7 Year 1989 which unleashed the choice of law that allowed individuals to choose between Civil, Customary, and Islamic Law to apply to their inheritance cases. However, a significant change occurred in 2006 when the government enacted the revision of the act. The new law imposed the Islamic Inheritance Law as the ultimate inheritance law for Indonesian Muslims. Under the latest religious act, Muslims are compelled to take the Islamic Inheritance Law as the only choice to resolve disputes in inheritance cases when they decided to appear in the court. Nevertheless, this provision has unsettled the issues that were previously addressed by the former pluralist choices of law regime since the application of Islamic Law in Indonesia sometimes deviates from its gender neutrality and favors males regarding the proportion of entitlement. For example, as Carranza notes, this could result in a full estate going to the brother of the deceased or the nearest adult male in the absence of a son, leaving any surviving daughters with nothing. This change resulted in women’s entitlements under inheritance law being adversely affected in comparison to the civil system that covered this issue …show more content…
Otherwise, the judges of Religious Courts are supposed to base their decisions on The Compilation regardless its official form. The compilation tried to elevate the equality issue and maintenance fairness between men and women by introducing several changes in Islamic law. These changes and those that resulted from several Indonesian Supreme Court decisions, such as Supreme Court Decision No. 184/K/AG/1995 and No. 184 K/AG/1995, do not carry much weight in the Indonesian Muslim community. For example, several religious court decisions were found to indicate complicated women’s experience over Kalala issue, such as case No 04/Pdt.P/2012/MS.Snb, Case No 002/Pdt.G/2015/MS-Sab, and Case No. 14/Pdt.P/2013/PA.BTM, which, contradicted one another. Those cases were found in separate places in Indonesia and led to the assumption that it might be based on Adat influence in each