Tim Lindsey

Indonesia : law and society

Indonesia: Law and Society is a comprehensive survey of the choices facing the worlds fourth-largest country at the end of the twentieth century. It focuses on current issues including human rights, political reform, labour law, womens rights, sexuality, traditional customary land rights, judicial corruption and the status of East Timor, as well as the re-emergence of Islam: issues that have been debated since independence in 1945. Recognising that Indonesias future is now tied to the global economy, this book also examines changing commercial culture and contract models, dispute resolution, intellectual property protection, press freedom, banking, the legal profession and the role of the economic crisis in social change. This is a book designed to give both a detailed insight into the legal and social controversies of contemporary Indonesia and to provide a general introduction to its complex legal system. Current issues are considered on the context of colonial and pre-colonial influences as well as the very different regimes of Presidents Soekarno, Soeharto and Habibie. Always the emphasis is on reformasi and prospects for the future.

Law and labour market regulation in East Asia

Review(s) of: Law and Labour Market Regulation in East Asia, by Sean Cooney, Tim Lindsey, Richard Mitchell and Ying Zhu (eds), Routledge Studies in the Growth Economies of Asia (No 39), London and New York: Routledge, 2002. Pages: xv + 282. ISBN 0415221684.

Monopolising Islam: The Indonesian Ulama Council and state regulation of the ‘Islamic economy’

The Ulama Council of Indonesia (MUI) is an advisory body with a nationwide network of branches that produces fatwa ‘to guide the Islamic community and the government’. Nominally an independent NGO, MUI has always had a complex and mutually dependent relationship with the state, which established it and funds it. This paper describes regulatory changes since Soehartos fall in 1998 that have expanded MUIs formal role in the state system for the administration of Islamic legal traditions and, in particular, the ‘syariah economy’. These changes have heightened MUIs influence and the legal authority of its fatwa, granting it new institutional roles (and, in some cases, monopolies) in relation to halal certification, Islamic finance and the haj pilgrimage. MUI has now begun to accrue quasi-legislative powers resembling those enjoyed by state ulama councils and state Muftis elsewhere in Southeast Asia, but not previously available to any modern Indonesian fatwa-producing body.

ECONOMIC REFORM WHEN THE CONSTITUTION MATTERS: INDONESIA'S CONSTITUTIONAL COURT AND ARTICLE 33

Abstract Article 33 of Indonesias Constitution requires the state to ‘control’ important branches of production and natural resources. The meaning of ‘control’ has been a matter of significant debate since Indonesias independence: does it require the state to manage directly, or is regulation enough? The government has recently sought to break down government monopolies and attract private investment in key sectors. To this end it has enacted a raft of new statutes, but they have been challenged in Indonesias new Constitutional Court. The Court has opted for the ‘direct manage ment’ interpretation of article 33, striking down statutes that implicitly interpret it as requiring government regulation only. This paper discusses these decisions and, more broadly, problems arising from judicial intervention in economic policy formation. It also considers how the government has sought to circumvent the decisions, and the possible consequences of state non-compliance for the Courts future.

Islam, the monarchy and criminal law in Brunei: the Syariah Penal Code Order, 2013

ABSTRACT Efforts to expand the application of Islamic criminal law in Muslim majority states to implement hudud laws present governments with difficult choices between modern human rights norms and conservative local understandings of Islamic tradition. The governments of Muslim majority countries in Southeast Asia used to be very reluctant to embrace hudud but that has begun to change in recent decades. In Brunei, the introduction of a sweeping and conservative Syariah Penal Code Order that includes hudud punishments, such as amputation and stoning to death, has been driven by this tiny oil-rich state’s absolute monarchy. It sees the Code as further entrenching the state ideology of ‘Malay Muslim Monarchy’ and thus its own legitimacy. The Sultan has trenchantly rejected external rights-based criticisms and threatened domestic critics with prosecution, although implementation of the more severe provisions and punishments of the Code have been delayed. This paper discusses the legal and political implications of Brunei’s Syariah Penal Code Order. Situating the Code in the historical and political context of Islamic law in Brunei, the Code itself is described, locating it within contemporary politics. After considering the controversies the Code has provoked, the article speculates on whether it will ever be fully implemented.