The Challenges of Teaching Comparative Law and Socio-Legal Studies at Indonesia's Law Schools

Abstract

This article addresses the role of legal research methodologies in the development of legal science and the creation of social change in Indonesia. Based on fieldwork conducted at Indonesian law schools between 2014 and 2016, this article reveals that legal research methods taught in Indonesia are starkly divided into normative-juridical and empirical-juridical approaches. Misunderstandings between adherents of these different schools of thought pose significant obstacles to the development of interdisciplinary approaches to law that span or go beyond the divide. Methodological conflicts resulting in the absence of socio-legal approaches in Indonesian law schools, coupled with outdated and limited source materials, limit the study of comparative law in Indonesia to the mere comparison of statutes and rules shorn of socio-political context. They also fail to instill awareness of the importance of considering social – on top of legal – impact in the context of Indonesia's complex and pluralist legal system.

Normative Legal Research in Indonesia: Its Originis and Approaches

“…They emphatically reject the 'declining of the science of law,' which is considered to eliminate the unique character of dogmatic jurisprudence (Mahmud Marzuki, 2008). "The socio-legal approach is largely viewed negatively by pure legal scholars who teach legal research methodology because it is believed that such an approach is not part of traditional legal studies" (Wiratraman, 2019).…”

“…For example, normative legal research in Indonesia still tends to be preferred for solving legal problems or cases using deductive reasoning. Indeed, legal education in Indonesia is still dominated by a doctrinal or formalist approach that neglects social science perspectives such as sociology, anthropology, and political economy (Wiratraman, 2019). However, this kind of development is gradually becoming obsolete among legal scholars.…”

Land Procurement for Public Interest Against Destroyed Land: Natural Events and Legal Certaint

“…Wheeler and Thomas, socio-legal studies are an alternative approach to testing the law [23,24]. Socio-legal itself has a close relationship with other social sciences in terms of the methodology used, wherewith this similar method and approach, a basic understanding of the legal substance can be obtained [25,26].…”

Sentencing of Minor Offences in Indonesia: Policy, Practice and Reform

“…More theoretically, as the result, the investigation of law by using socio-legal approach will reveal truth about law (Sidharta, 2000). Another consideration is that sociolegal method did not examine law only in its normativedogmatic nature (Rahardjo, 2009;Wiratraman, 2019).…”