ABSTRACT
The previous chapter has shown how the Dutch colonial enterprise in the Indonesian archipelago resulted in unavoidable conflict between the institutions of law derived from the Western tradition and those that originated in the legal traditions that had long been entrenched in the lives of the indigenous people. As a continuation of that chapter, the current discussion will focus on the fate of Islamic law and adat law in the early national era of Indonesia, especially in regard to the phenomenon of legal conflicts between the two traditions followed by the indigenous population and the civilian tradition being constructed by the nascent state. As the main subject of the chapter is the behavior of the state with respect to the roles of Islamic law and adat law, the discussion will focus on those laws and regulations passed by the state (whether by its executive or legislative branches) in response to those non-state normative orderings. The chronological range of the discussion in this chapter will be restricted to the first three decades of the national era of Indonesia, beginning with its proclamation of independence in August 1945. Two avenues of investigation will be followed in this chapter. The first traces the legal debates arising during the formative period of the constitution, with special reference to the state’s response to the legal teachings originating from adat and Islamic law. The discussion will then go on to analyze the Old Order and the early New Order regimes’ respective strategies with respect to legal pluralism, shown in the laws and regulations passed specifically to manage the legal traditions of adat and Islamic law as practiced in society.
