State (District) Court and traditional dispute resolution (TDR) in South Kalimantan: a comparative study

Topic: State (District) Court and traditional dispute resolution (TDR) in South Kalimantan: a comparative study

Presenter: Mirza Buana - PhD Candidate, TC Beirne School of Law

This paper considers a concept of culturally adapted Traditional Dispute Resolution (TDR) for contemporary Indonesia to meet the challenges of intra-institutional dialogue arising from legal pluralism in Indonesia. The Indonesian legal system in general and judicial system in particular is dominated by a legal formalism (centralism) paradigm. This paradigm privileges the State court's jurisdiction to settle grievances over TDR. Criminal cases, and natural resources cases both criminal and civil (especially criminal cases) are prosecuted in the State system; the option of TDR being disregarded by the State. In civil cases, ADR is acceptable before pursuing to court. In practice, the State court often operates in discriminatory ways.

This thesis consists of three layers, First, it will examine the perpetual philosophical debate between legal formalists and non-formalists including natural law, critical and realism theorists. It will cover the constitutional debates between Indonesian founding fathers regarding the state paradigm. Second, processes State courts and TDR will be critically examined to discern respective advantages and disadvantages and reflects on some of the controversies. Last, this thesis will consider the role of judges and local leaders, as the main actors in dispute resolution, and examine the process of reasoning and interpretation through which they apply the law.

All welcome, please register by emailing Beth Williams.

Contact: Beth Williams, ph: (334) 69350, email: events@law.uq.edu.au