For the socio-legal component of the Judicial Sector Support Program (JSSP), two research teams consisting of eight Indonesian researchers from various regions engaged in empirical research. The research was supervised by the Van Vollenhoven Institute for Law, Governance and Society of Leiden University. The topics of the studies were: Land Disputes involving good faith purchasers (civil law); and General Principles of Proper Administration (State Administrative Law). The studies were a follow up to the program’s restatement component, a doctrinal study looking at the application of a number of legal concepts in judicial practice, particularly legislation and case law. The restatement phase of the program was completed in April 2016.
For the socio-legal phase of the program, two out of thethree research topics covered during the restatement phase were selected, but this time the focus of the research went beyond legal practice. The socio-legal approach is concerned with ’law in action’ and looks at the contextual social factors that contribute to the application, implementation and interpretation of law. Such an approach is necessary to understand why particular legal problems occur in the first place and how they are being dealt with in practice before they end up in court. Both teams therefore carried out empirical research, particularly looking at the role of regional and local institutions such as the National Land Agency (Badan Pertanahan Nasional), Village Heads (Kepala Desa) and the legal department of regional governments (Biro Hukum). Various research methods were used including in depth interviews and observations from the case-studies. Each team wrote an extensive report on the research findings, ending with a number of recommendations to the Mahkamah Agung and other institutions to stimulate a uniform application of procedures, law and jurisprudence in Indonesia.
The reports were presented to the public during a seminar on January 24th at the Erasmus Huis, located at the embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. More than 130 people from various backgrounds attended, including legal professionals, businessmen and officials from public institutions.
The report can be downloaded at the link:
https://leip.or.id/peluncuran-hasil-penelitian-sociolegal/
General information of JSSP
The Judicial Sector Support Program is a response to requests from the Indonesian Supreme Court, the Judicial Commission and the Attorney General’s Office to further strengthen the Rule of Law in Indonesia. It consist of 3 (inter-related) components:
Component I: Judicial Training component
Component II: Mahkamah Agung component
Component III: Court budgeting component
In the program the various key institutions (MahkamahAgung and HogeRaad; Judicial Training Institute under Mahkamah Agung, Attorney General’s Office Training Body and Stichting Studiecentrum Rechtspleging; Komisi Yudisial and Raad voor de Rechtspraak) and experts in the judiciary and the public prosecution will cooperate around the following issues: institutional support to the Judicial Training Institute under the Mahkamah Agung and the Training Body of the Attorney General’s Office promoting legal certainty and increasing judicial skills in selected areas of law; strengthening the chamber system in the Mahkamah Agung; and elaborating a more rational budget formulation mechanism for Indonesian courts. In the implementation the institutions will also be supported by experts from academic institutions and NGOs like the Van Vollenhoven Institute of Leiden University.
The program is managed by the Center for International Legal Cooperation in The Hague in partnership with the Indonesian Institute for Independent Judiciary (LeIP) in Jakarta.
