Law in Indonesia

Laws in Indonesia are a mixture of the European legal system, religious law, and customary law. Most civil, criminal and criminal systems are based on European law, especially from the Netherlands because of the historical aspects of Indonesia’s past which are colonial territories as the Netherlands Indies (Nederlandsch-Indie). Religious law because most of the people of Indonesia embraced Islam, the dominance of Islamic law or sharia more mostly in the field of marriage, kinship, and inheritance. In addition, Indonesia also applies customary law systems that are absorbed in legislation or jurisprudence, [1] which is a forwarding of the local rules of society and cultures that exist in the archipelago.

Indonesian civil law

One of the areas of law that governs the rights and obligations held on the subject of law and the relationship between legal subjects. Civil law is also called private law or civil law as opposed to public law. If public law regulates matters relating to the state as well as the public interest (eg politics and elections (constitutional law), daily government activities (administrative law or state administration), crime (criminal law), then civil law governs relations between residents or everyday citizens, such as the maturity of a person, marriage, divorce, death, inheritance, property, business activities and other civil acts.

Civil law in Indonesia is based on civil law in the Netherlands, especially Dutch civil law in colonial times. Even the Civil Code (known KUHPer.) Applicable in Indonesia is nothing but an improper translation of Burgerlijk Wetboek (otherwise known as BW) prevailing in the Dutch kingdom and enforced in Indonesia (and the Dutch colony) based on the principle of concordance .

For Indonesia which was then still called the Dutch East Indies, BW was enacted starting 1859. Dutch civil law itself is adapted from the civil law applicable in France with some adjustments.

The civil code law (abbreviated KUHPer) consists of four parts:

• Book I on People; regulates individual law and family law, namely the law regulating the status and rights and obligations held by legal subjects. Among other provisions concerning the emergence of civil rights, birth, maturity, marriage, family, divorce and loss of civil rights. Particularly for the part of marriage, some of its provisions have been declared null and void by the enactment of Law No. 1 of 1974 concerning marriage.
• Book II on Material; regulates the law of things, namely the law that regulates the rights and obligations of legal subjects related to objects, including material rights, inheritance and guarantees. The meaning of objects includes (i) immovable tangible objects (eg land, buildings and ships of a certain weight); (ii) a moving tangible object, that is, other tangible objects other than those considered to be immovable tangible objects; and (iii) intangible goods (such as collect or receivable rights). Particularly for the part of the land, some of its provisions have been declared invalid with the law on the number 5 of 1960 on agrarian law. Similarly, the section on mortgage guarantees has been declared invalid by the law on the right to dependent.
• Book III on Engagement; stipulates the law of engagement (or sometimes called a treaty (although this term actually has a different meaning), namely the law that regulates rights and obligations between legal subjects in the field of engagement, among others on the types of engagement (which consists of the engagement that arises of the laws and contracts arising out of the agreement), the terms and procedures for the making of a treaty, especially in the field of trade, the Code of Trade Law (KUHD) is also used as a reference The contents of the KUHD are closely linked to KUHPer, especially Book III, it can be said that KUHD is a special part of KUHPer.

Book IV on Expiry and Evidence; regulates the rights and obligations of legal subjects (in particular limits or deadlines) in exercising their rights in civil law and matters relating to proof.
The systematics of the Criminal Code are still used as a reference by jurists and are still taught to law faculties in Indonesia.