Exploring the Phenomenon of Legal Plurality in Indonesia Legal Reconvention in Cases of Divorce and Marriage Isbat of the Sasak Community

Abstract

Reviewing on the research reports from several researchers such as Ratno Lukito on Legal Traditions in Indonesia, John R. Bowen on Islam-Law-Equality in Indonesia, Masnun on Islamic Law in Sasak Social Dynamics, and Murdan (the author himself) on Legal Interlegality in Sasak Community Marriages, shows that legal plurality is a fact, phenomenon, reality whose existence cannot be denied in contemporary Indonesian law today. The Sasak community as part of Indonesia also cannot escape from legal plurality. However, in the context of resolving disputes and legal issues in court, judges often respond to the fact of legal plurality with different attitudes. Sometimes some judges only consider the legal side of the State, sometimes they consider the legal side of religion and the State, and sometimes they accommodate all three laws (State law, religion and custom). Seeing the relativity of judges in responding to the fact of legal plurality, this article will discuss the side of legal convention in the context of legal plurality in Indonesia, and the discussion will be limited to the context of Divorce and Marriage Isbat in the Marriage Law of the Sasak Community. In this regard, this paper uses a qualitative line of thinking that emphasizes the empirical-descriptive-analytical side. The depth of discussion and approach follows the socio-legal study model as a renewable trend in the development of legal science in recent years. Socio-legal studies are not only limited to considering the juridical-normative aspects of law or just the empirical aspects of law, but are a study model that collaborates or synergizes the juridical-normative, juridical-empirical aspects and other socio-legal aspects. In line with that, the paper before the reader will present discussion material and scientific dialogue regarding legal reconventions in the context of the plurality of marriage laws in contemporary Indonesian society, more specifically in the case of divorce and isbat marriages in the Sasak community. In this context, legal reconvention is used to explore the litigation activities of the panel of judges which accommodates customary law, religious (Islamic) law and state law in adjudicating and deciding cases in religious courts.