Mazahib,Vol XVI, No. 2 (Desember 2017), Pp. 110 -124

ISSN 1829-9067; EISSN 2460-6588

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.21093/mj.v16i2.825

THE ROLE OF SHARIA JUDGES IN INDONESIA:
BETWEEN THE COMMON LAW AND THE CIVIL LAW SYSTEMS
Alfitri
IAIN Samarinda
al.alfitri@gmail.com
Abstract:
This article seeks to analyse the role of Religious Courts’ (Pengadilan Agama or
PA) Judges in the formation of Islamic law in Indonesia. As part of the civil legal
system, PA Judges are bound by legal provisions in handling legal disputes in
court. They must apply the applicable legal provisions to decide upon a case. This
condition can also be understood from the aspect of appointment of judges in
Indonesia, including PA Judges, which is conducted not through professional
career path as in the common law system. Thus, they are appointed from a new
graduate of law/sharia faculty and then trained, inter alia, to apply and/or
interpret applicable laws (legislation); and not to make the law itself. However,
on the basis of secondary data analysis, studies on the ijtihad of PA Judges reveal
that they are no longer only fixated on the provisions of statutes in deciding cases.
They also make laws, cases in point are the Compilation of Islamic Law (KHI)
and the Compilation of Sharia Economic Law (KHES), do ijtihad on the books of
fiqh which became the basis for the drafting of Islamic legislation in Indonesia.
Some of them even do direct ijtihad from Sharia sources, namely the Qur'an and
Hadith. This condition is arguably more in accordance with the character of
judges (qadis) in Islamic history which on a certain level similar to the role of
judges in common law system.
Keywords: Sharia Judges‘ Role, Legal Profession, Bureaucracy, Common Law
System, Civil Law System

Abstrak:
Artikel ini berusaha untuk menganalisis peran hakim Pengadilan Agama dalam
pembentukan hukum di Indonesia. Sebagai bagian dari sistem Civil Law, hakim
PA terikat dengan ketentuan hukum dalam menangani masalah di pengadilan.
Mereka harus menerapkan ketentuan-ketentuan hukum yang berlaku untuk
memutus suatu perkara. Kondisi ini bisa dipahami juga dari aspek pengangkatan
hakim di Indonesia, termasuk hakim PA, yang dilakukan melalui jalur karir tidak
jalur professional seperti di sistem Common Law. Sehingga, mereka diangkat dari
lulusan baru fakultas hukum/syariah dan kemudian dilatih, antara lain, untuk
menerapkan dan/atau menafsirkan hukum yang berlaku (peraturan perundangundangan); dan bukan untuk membuat hukum itu sendiri. Meskipun begitu,
berdasarkan analisis data sekunder, kajian-kajian terhadap ijtihad hakim PA,
hakim PA tidak lagi hanya terpaku pada ketentuan peraturan perundangundangan dalam memutus perkara. Mereka juga membuat hukum, contohnya KHI

Alfitri, Sharia Judges’ Role in Indonesia: Between The Common Law and The Civil Law Systems | 111

dan KHES, melakukan ijtihad terhadap kitab-kitab fiqh yang menjadi dasar
penyusunan peraturan perundang-undangan Islam di Indonesia. Sebagian dari
mereka bahkan melakukan ijtihad langsung dari sumber Syariah, yaitu al-Qur'an
dan Hadis. Kondisi ini menurut penulis lebih sesuai dengan karakter hakim (qadi)
dalam sejarah Islam yang pada tataran tertentu mirip dengan peran hakim di
sistem Common Law.
Kata Kunci: Peran Hakim Pengadilan Agama , Profesi Hukum, Birokrasi, Sistem
Common Law, Sistem Civil Law

A. Introduction
In terms of the process of becoming a judge, a considerable distinction
exists between the common law systems and the civil law systems. There is a long
process to qualify as a judge in the common law that make the invitation to the
Bench or appointment is rarely granted before the age of 40.1 Before this, one
must have a successful career in the legal profession, e.g. as a barrister or a
solicitor in Australia, if he/she wants to become a judge.2 Hence, being a judge in
the common law systems is not a matter of choice per se; rather, it is also about
one‘s capability in the legal field. Conversely, judgeship in civil law countries is
subject to career preference. Law graduates can apply via the state recruitment if
they prefer to become a judge in their professional careers and serve as a
government employee instead of working for a law firm as a lawyer.3
Thus, the judge in the common law system is a highly skilled lawyer who
not only knows how to apply the law into a case but also makes the law itself by
its verdict.4 Meanwhile, judges in the civil law system initially are new graduates
of law faculty who are appointed and subsequently trained as judges. In practice,
judges in the civil law system apply only the applicable legal provisions to the
cases in which they are engaged. Their verdict is not considered a source of law.
In deciding cases, judges are not bound by previous judge's decision but they are
bound by the laws and regulations made by the state.
Given these differences, it is interesting to see the role of judges of religious
courts in Indonesia. Judges of Religious Courts (hereinafter PA Judges) handle
Islamic legal cases. State laws concerning substantive Islamic law in Indonesia are
limited in number and mostly related to family law. Indonesia has the
Compilation of Islamic law but it is perceived to be problematic in terms of
formal legal basis in the hierarchy of Indonesian laws as well as in terms of
substance since Muslims in Indonesia still make fiqh an Islamic legal reference
1

Mary Ann Glendon, Paolo Carozza, and Colin Picker, Comparative Legal Traditions:
Text, Materials and Cases on Western Law, 3 edition (St. Paul, MN: West, 2006), 590.
2
Catriona Cook, Laying down the Law, 5th ed (Sydney : Butterworths, 2001), 27–29,
http://trove.nla.gov.au/version/45507077.
3
George E Glos, Comparative Law (Littleton, Colo: Fred B. Rothman, 1979), 28.
4
Especially in the case of tort or a wrongful act which is committed by a person that
unfairly harm other persons who then suffer losses or losses that cause legal liability for the person
who committed the wrongful act.

112 | Mazahib, Vol XVI, No 2, Desember 2017

authority instead of Islamic state laws.5 With the expansion of religious
jurisdiction to solve the sharia economic dispute, there has also been a legal
vacuum in the field of sharia economy.6 Then, does the role of PA Judges still fit
within the framework of the aforementioned comparative legal theory? In the
classical period of the development of Islamic law, qadi (Arabic: judge) also do
not simply apply the laws written by the eponyms of the schools of Islamic law.
They also do ijtihad to seek a fair ruling on the case being handled. Some of them
also reached the highest level in the development of Islamic law as author jurist or
juris consult. Given this, what kind of role is more appropriate for judges of
religious courts in the Indonesian legal system that embraces civil law system?
To this ends, this article first explain the relationship between the judge to
the legal profession and bureaucracy in the common law systems and the civil law
systems. It will look at the history of the emergence of legal profession as well as
judges‘ selection as the starting point of difference between the common law and
civil law system. Then, the article compares the historical account with the
contemporary practice of the judges‘ appointment in both legal systems. Next, the
resultant differences of the practice in both legal systems will be discussed and
will be contextualized in the case of judges of religious courts (hereinafter PA
judges) in Indonesia. This article adopts a conceptual approach of legal
professions in world legal tradition (common law, civil law, and Islamic law) in
assessing the role of PA Judges in the civil law system of Indonesia. It uses
secondary legal sources, namely results of empirical legal research that have been
published in the form of books and journal articles, to substantiate the argument of
what role has been and should be played by PA Judges considering the legal
system of Indonesia.
B. Judicial Profession and Bureaucracy: Common Law vis-à-vis Civil Law
System
Compared to other major legal systems in the world, the common law
systems are more recently developed. The period of its formation was dating back
between the 12th and 14th centuries,7 and originally it was not concerned about
substantive law. Instead, the early common law was a product of British royal
government administration which, centuries after the Norman Conquest, became
more centralised and specialised.8
At first, there was no separation power of government affairs in early
England. The King, who was advised by Curia Regis, exercised judicial power

5

Alfitri, ―Whose Authority? Contesting and Negotiating the Idea of a Legitimate
Interpretation of Islamic Law in Indonesia,‖ Asian Journal of Comparative Law 10, no. 2
(December 2015): 191–212, doi:10.1017/asjcl.2016.1.
6
Alfitri Alfitri, ―Whose Authority? Interpreting, Imposing, and Complying with
Corporate
Zakat
Obligations
in
Indonesia‖
(Thesis,
2015),
https://digital.lib.washington.edu:443/researchworks/handle/1773/33993.
7
Patrick Parkinson, Tradition and Change in Australian Law, 2013, 62; C. G
Weeramantry, An Invitation to the Law (Pannipitiya: Stamford Lake, 2009), 43.
8
S.F.C Milsom, Historical Foundation of the Common Law (London: Butterworths,
1981), 11.

Alfitri, Sharia Judges’ Role in Indonesia: Between The Common Law and The Civil Law Systems | 113

and at the same time also acted as the executive as well as the legislature.9 The
King himself initially went throughout the country to resolve disputes, and later,
he sent judges out in his place. There had existed local courts throughout the
British Empire at that time, known as the counties and the hundreds.10
This situation, then, gave rise to the idea of consolidating the existing courts
into central administration by the King. This step was taken by Henry II, and it is
deemed as the first formation of the common law court.11 Through the General
Eyre, Henry II regularly sent the prominent judges in the King‘s court (the Curia
Regis) to dispense the King‘s justice to the citizens.12 There were two kinds of
matter handled by this itinerant justice: tax disputes between the citizens and the
King which were processed in the Court of Exchequer, and common disputes
among citizens which were litigated in the Court of Common Pleas.13 Since this
step was taken by Henry II, judges as the royal servant routinely carried out their
task in the General Eyre.
Likewise, the King was also still itinerant. While he was elsewhere, some
judges would stay at the Palace in Westminster.14 Given this situation, Henry II,
thus, developed a central royal court in the 12th century, ‗the Bench‘, and by the
beginning of the 14th century, the three courts (the Court of Exchequer, the Court
of Common Pleas, and the Bench) sat at Westminster.15 From this time, the
creation of a corps of professional judges was begun in the common law systems.
There were disadvantages, however, that arose from centralisation of courts
in Westminster. The litigants who lived in remote areas had difficulties utilizing
the court services, either in Westminster or the itinerant King‘s Bench.16 Further,
the use of juries to resolve matters brought to the courts led to complex problems
of combining central justice and local knowledge. The juries had to be people who
were familiar with the case, and this meant they had to be called from the area
where the case emerged.17
These problems were resolved by establishing the writs system. The King
issued an instruction to the sheriff to investigate the dispute, bring the defendant
to the court, empanel the jury and so forth.18 The function of jury in this writs
system was to decide the case whilst the judge would decide whether the case
brought by the plaintiff fell within the right writ; failure to do so would cause the
plaintiffs‘ suit to be refuted by the court.19
The enormous development of the system of writs, the complexity of
choosing the correct writ, and the problem of distance for the litigants gave rise to
9

Glendon, Carozza, and Picker, Comparative Legal Traditions, 440.
Parkinson, Tradition and Change in Australian Law, 64–65.
11
Weeramantry, An Invitation to the Law, 440–41.
12
Parkinson, Tradition and Change in Australian Law, 65–66; Weeramantry, An
Invitation to the Law, 43–44.
13
Glendon, Carozza, and Picker, Comparative Legal Traditions, 440–41.
14
Ibid., 440; Parkinson, Tradition and Change in Australian Law, 66.
15
Parkinson, Tradition and Change in Australian Law, 67.
16
Cook, Laying down the Law, 27.
17
Parkinson, Tradition and Change in Australian Law, 67–68.
18
H. Patrick Glenn, Legal Traditions of the World: Sustainable Diversity in Law, 2014.
19
Ibid.
10

114 | Mazahib, Vol XVI, No 2, Desember 2017

the emergence of lawyers who would give professional assistance to the parties.
Among the lawyers, there were ‗attorneys‘ who represented the litigants before
the courts, and ‗serjeants at law‘ in the court of common pleas.20 As litigation
increased, there appeared ‗barristers‘ who specialised in oral pleading.21 Initially,
judges had to come from the ‗serjeants at law‘ before they were appointed to the
bench,22 and later they came from the Queen‘s or King‘s Counsel who were
competent lawyers (barristers) that had achieved senior rank within the common
law systems.23 Thus, the close relationship between the judges and the legal
profession has occurred since the beginning history of this legal system. This is
because the prominent lawyers (serjeant at law and barristers-at-law) would
advance their careers in judgeship.
As a matter of history, the judges‘ corps in the civil law systems dates
back to Roman law, stretching from the Twelve Tables (c. 450 BC) to the
Justinian compilations (c. 534 AD).24 The Twelve Tables was a collection of
rules, a written text of the Roman customary law. These rules were used
personally by the Roman citizens to settle disputes arising among them. 25 Initially,
should the citizens be unable to settle their disputes, they had to appear before a
magistrate;26 later, in the republic era, they would refer to a private citizen or
group of private citizens which were chosen by the parties and the magistrate.27
This single juryman who was called iudex would serve as a judge: he investigated
the facts, heard both parties‘ arguments as well as witnesses‘ testimony, and
delivered his judgement over the dispute.28
As Rome expanded, there emerged a need for a special magistrate, i.e. the
praetor (established in 367 BC) which was exclusively responsible for
administration of justice. He did this specifically with respect to matters in the
actual trial by issuing a formula.29 It was with this formula, then, the iudex laid
down the decision of the dispute since the formula was the basis of instructions
for the iudex to follow in the courts.30
Historically, the judge in the civil law systems was not a person who
specialised in law because the iudex was an ordinary citizen who was appointed to
run an arbitral function by deciding disputes according to the formula.31 The iudex
20

Cook, Laying down the Law, 27–28.
Ibid., 28.
22
Cook, Laying down the Law.
23
D. J Gifford, Understanding the Australian Legal System (Sydney: Cavendish Pub.
(Australia), 1997), 68; Francis Kevin Heathcote Maher, Peter Louis Waller, and David P Derham,
Derham, Maher and Waller an Introduction to the Law. (Sydney: The Law Book Co., 1991), 46.
24
Glendon, Carozza, and Picker, Comparative Legal Traditions, 44.
25
Peter Gonville Stein and Cambridge University Press, Roman Law in European History
(Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013), 3–4.
26
Ibid.
27
Ibid., 4.
28
Ibid., 4–5.
29
Ibid., 8–9.
30
Glenn, Legal Traditions of the World, 208.
31
John Henry Merryman and Rogelio Pérez-Perdomo, The Civil Law Tradition: An
Introduction to the Legal Systems of Western Europe and Latin America (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford
University Press, 2007), 35.
21

Alfitri, Sharia Judges’ Role in Indonesia: Between The Common Law and The Civil Law Systems | 115

had no expertise in law and maintained very limited power because his authority
came from the praetor formula and his action was circumscribed within its terms.
32
Moreover, in difficult cases, the iudex sought legal advice from the
jurisconsults, a class of men who specialised in law.33
As the formula system became more technical, the advent of jurisconsults in
ancient Roman law was a solution. The actors in the judicial system (the praetor,
the iudex and the advocates who represented the parties) were not trained in the
law but they needed help in undertaking their functions.34 By the end of the late
Republic (c. 1st BC), the jurisconsults had monopolized the technical information
and legal experience, and they became the first professional lawyers in the civil
law systems.35
During the Imperial period, as the government became more bureaucratic,
the legal procedure was bureaucratized by replacing the formula procedure with
cognitio procedure which was characterised by appointment of people as state
employees who were learned in law (professional judges).36 However, it was the
jurisconsults who played a significant role in shaping the civil law systems,
inasmuch as they laid down the principles, the Corpus Juris Civilis of Justinian.
The iudex, on the other hand, just applied principles into specific cases.37 Hence,
there was separation between the judicial profession (judges) and legal profession
(juris consults) in the history of the civil law systems. Judges were part of
bureaucracy who were appointed by the state. They functioned simply to apply the
rule of law of the state which were developed by the juris consults.
C. Current Judges’ Appointment: How Different are PA Judges?
The practice of appointing judges from the people who have endured
professional legal careers continues in the common law systems. Usually, judges
are appointed from the barristers-at-law.38 Barristers and solicitors are two
branches of the legal profession which give legal services but have different
functions. As lawyers, solicitors help people with litigation, business transactions,
or just to get legal advice.39 If a claim proceeds to court, it is the job of barristers
to assist the litigants, as they are the advocates who will argue the case in courts.40
Despite this difference, both barristers and solicitors are inter-connected because
people can not go directly to barristers. If they want to litigate they have to appear
before the solicitor‘ office first, which then delivers their legal problems to the
barrister. Further, barristers are employed and paid by the solicitors inasmuch as it
is the solicitors who collect the fees from clients.41
32

Ibid, and Stein, Roman Law …, 9.
Glendon et. al, Comparative …, 44.
34
Stein, Roman Law …, 13.
35
Glendon et. al, Comparative …, 44-45.
36
Stein, Roman Law ... 24, and Merryman, The Civil Law …, 35.
37
See Ibid., 35, and Glendon et. al., Comparative …, 45
38
Recently in Victoria (Australia), the County Court and the Supreme Court judges come
from among the solicitors as well; see Waller, Derham …, 49.
39
Gifford, Understanding …, 67.
40
Waller, Derham …, 46.
41
See Gifford, Understanding …, 67 and Waller, Derham …, 46.
33

116 | Mazahib, Vol XVI, No 2, Desember 2017

Barristers are divided into junior barristers and senior barristers. Senior
barristers might be invited to the judiciary, the Bench, as the culmination and
acknowledgement of their outstanding legal career. For instance, a barrister might
be appointed as a judge in the magistrate‘s court only after at least five or ten
years service as a barrister. Upper levels (county courts) require more seniority;
and the High Courts and Supreme Courts are exclusively for Queen‘s Counsels, in
honour of their eminence in the Bar (barristers‘ organization). 42 All the selections
involved in these judges‘ appointments are made by members of legal
professions: i.e. judges in the Bench, the bar and judges‘ candidate (barristers).
Then the selected barristers are formally appointed by the sovereign.43 This, in
turn, depicts the inter-relation of judges, the legal professions and bureaucracy in
most common law systems.
Unlike the practices in common law systems, the civil law judges enter the
judiciary as career judges, and this option has to be made from the earliest stages
of the law graduates‘ professional lives.44 There are other legal professions
besides judges which can be chosen, such as public prosecutors, government
lawyers, advocates or notaries; but once the decision has been taken, the law
graduates will live with these careers forever. Mobility is very rare, unless the
‗movers‘ are willing to accept losing seniority and income from their transfer.45
The impracticality of career transfer is not only due to the aforementioned
reasons, but also because of the different structure of judges‘ career (as well as
public prosecutors‘ and government lawyers‘ careers) in the civil law systems.
Judges are civil servants, thus, entry to the judiciary is made by following civil
servant recruitment in the Ministry of Justice [the Supreme Court in Indonesia].46
If the applicants succeed in their testing, they will become junior judges in the
lower courts. Prior to being in charge of tribunals, they usually have to undertake
a course of judges‘ training.47
The advancement of the junior judges‘ career will depend on their
merits/abilities and seniorities.48 Thus, the process of judges‘ promotions in the
civil law system is bureaucratic and separate from other legal professions. Judges,
as well as public prosecutors and government lawyers, are civil servants and they
have their own scheme and schedule of career promotion which is established by
the government. Previous experiences as lawyers, advocates or notaries will not
be counted as value-added to judges‘ career advancement. Besides, as mentioned
above, transfer careers are unlikely to happen.49 Thus, it can be argued that in the
civil law systems judges only have relationships with the bureaucracy.
The Religious Courts in Indonesia are heavily influenced by the civil law
system. As in other civil legal systems, religious court judges are mostly recruited
42

Glos, Comparative …, 768.
Ibid.
44
Weeramantry, An Invitation …, 51.
45
Glos, Comparative …, 768; Weeramantry, An Invitation …, 51
46
Merryman, The Civil Law …, 35.
47
See ibid and Glos, Comparative …, 768.
48
Merryman, The Civil Law …, 35, 103.
49
ibid, 101-108.
43

Alfitri, Sharia Judges’ Role in Indonesia: Between The Common Law and The Civil Law Systems | 117

from among new Sharia faculty/law graduates. The regular recruitment process is
undertaken by the Supreme Court with certain candidate selection criteria (e.g.
having maximum GPA out of 4.00 and graduating from accredited A and/or B
Sharia/Law school). If applicants pass the recruitment tests, they will follow a
judicial training program by the Supreme Court. After enduring the training
period, a period of probation, they will formally be appointed to the position of
judge by the president. Recruiting judges from new university graduates requires
candidates to be trained in the practical skills involved in legal practice. However,
while PA judge training is intended to develop and deepen their practical skills
and legal knowledge, the pre-service training curriculum does not adequately
complement judges to engage in more open regulatory interpretations. Most
instruction in pre-designation training only reinforces what is being studied at the
university. The number of new subjects newly introduced in the judicial training
program is mostly related to court management or other technical issues.50 In
terms of appointment, hence, PA Judges are not different from their compatriots
in the civil law system.
D. Resultant Difference: Are PA Judges Inferior than the Common Law System
Judges?
Taken the historical accounts and contemporary practice together, it is
apparent that there is a clear-cut division among legal professions in the civil law
countries. This is because once law graduates have decided what they would like
to be after completing education in law, they will retain the same career in order
to be able to attain the highest level of their specialisation. Movement from one
profession to another is unlikely because each legal profession in the civil law
system requires functioning in the context of a lifetime of specialisation.
Additionally, some legal professions – judges, public prosecutor and government
lawyers – are part of government bureaucracy which has their own scheme of
career advancement that requires early embarkation to the chosen professions.
On the other hand, a close relationship among legal professions – solicitors,
barristers, and judges – can be seen in the common law systems. Even though
there is a functional distinction between solicitors and barristers, and judges are
invited from the senior barrister at law, the solicitors and barristers are
interconnected in the process, because a barrister may only be employed by a
solicitor to handle the litigation. In addition, in some places such as Victoria, there
is a tendency to minimize the different function between solicitors and barristers,
and a prominent solicitor can also be invited to be a judge. Hence, as clearly
argued by Weeramantry, this situation creates a close and strong relationship of
legal professions in the common law systems, as opposed to their counterparts in
the civil law systems who are deprived of their collective strength since they are
compartmentalised and fragmented.51

50

Euis Nurlaelawati and Abdurrahman Rahim, ―The Training, Appointment, and
Supervision of Islamic Judges in Indonesia,‖ Pacific Rim Law and Policy Journal 21, no. 1 (2012):
63–64.
51
Ibid, 51.

118 | Mazahib, Vol XVI, No 2, Desember 2017

Likewise, the existence of a different judicial tradition, historically, causes
further differences in the status of judges between the common law systems and
the civil law systems. In the common law systems, judges are leading figures who
gain public reputation through great cases which they have decided.52 The original
creation and the development of common law tradition through legal reasoning
and the doctrine of binding precedent lies entirely in the judges‘ hands.53 Judges
in the civil law systems, on the other hand, keep a ‗low profile.‘ Unlike the
common law systems, it is the jurisconsults who laid down the legal principles
upon which judges in the civil law systems make their decisions.54
Today, this different status also stems from the trial process which is
employed by each legal system, adversarial versus inquisitorial. Adversarial
judges become more authoritarian and remote than inquisitorial judges.55 The
former write an elaborate judgement under their names while the latter tend to
produce collective judgements of the whole court which, in turn, keep them at a
low profile.56
Given these differences, however, it can not be said that in terms of
qualification judges in the civil law systems are inferior to judges in the common
law systems. Considering the career advancement, in fact, both systems are
concerned about choosing the right person to the right position. In the common
law systems, the career advancement of judges is based on a principle that
eligibility for appointment to higher tribunals is only for judges of lower courts,
and judges must have risen through the entire court hierarchy before they can sit
on the highest court.57 Similarly, in the civil law system, young judges who sit in
the limited jurisdiction in their first careers will get promotion to a judgeship in a
general jurisdiction court, and they may occupy a position in the appellate and
final resort courts as their merits and seniorities increase.58 Thus, these systems
ensure that only qualified and experienced judges will ascend to high and
important judicial posts in the common law systems and the civil law systems.59
With regards to PA Judges in Indonesia, Nurlaelawati and Rahim argue
that their quality has also improved. Many PA Judges now hold a master of laws
degree, and even doctoral degree in law or sharia, and most judges who hold only
an undergraduate law degree are pursuing post-graduate education. As per data of
the Directorate of Religious Courts in 2009, there were 842 first instance judges,
or 28%, who had master‘s degrees and five had doctorates; more than half of all
appeals court judges—196, or 54%, had earned advanced degrees.60 The quality
of PA Judges are also further strengthened through in-service training programs
organized by the Supreme Court or other bodies and foundations concerned with
the development of the Islamic judiciary in Indonesia in order to developed the
52

Ibid, 50.
Merryman, The Civil Law …, 34.
54
Weeramantry, An Invitation …, 50.
55
Ibid, 186.
56
Ibid.
57
Glos, Comparative …, 768.
58
Ibid, 28.
59
Ibid, 28, 768.
60
Nurlaelawati Rahim, ―The Training …,‖ 50.
53

Alfitri, Sharia Judges’ Role in Indonesia: Between The Common Law and The Civil Law Systems | 119

capacity of judges and equip the courts to address contemporary problems.61 A
case in point is the program on gender sensitivity held by the Asia Foundation
which collaborated with a number of non-governmental institutions and women‘s
groups, and with the full cooperation and support of the Supreme Court. This
program designed to enhance judges‘ sensitivity to the impact of the law on
women, and therefore, produce judgments that provide justice to both male and
female litigants.62 The impact of this program can be seen in PA Judges‘ verdicts
which are no longer limited to the provision of law; they also consider such
principles of Sharia as maslaha (consideration of public welfare) which deduced
from the Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh) and, even, from al-Qur‘an and Hadith.
E. Current PA Judges’ Role: Finding the rule or Making the law?
There are four legal profession in Islamic legal history, namely: musannif
(author jurists), mufti (juris consults), professor of shari`a, and qadi (judges). In
his study on the role of these four legal professions from the formative period to
pre-modern period (7th C. – 18th C.), Hallaq finds that it was the juris consults and
the author-jurists who adapted Islamic law to meet the demand of new
circumstances. Professors, and the sharia judges alike, was not involved in legal
change because this was not part of their roles, namely to teach law students
and/or write condensed works for their students‘ benefit. When they engaged in
articulating a legal reaction to social changes, they did not carry out this task in
their capacity as a professor qua professor but more as an author-jurist or jurist
consult.63 Hallaq also argues that the roles of these four legal professions rarely
stood independently of each other because an Islamic jurist might become a sharia
judge but at the same time also a juris consult and/or an author-jurist and/or a
professor at sharia. After the eight century, a complete Islamic jurist career was
determined by the success of fulfilling all these roles. Ability to reach the level of
author jurist, followed by a juris consult, is deemed as the highest achievement;
meanwhile, being a sharia judge was not regarded as a prerequisite for crowning
success.64
Halllaq‘s finding on the overlapping roles of the Islamic legal professions is
relevant to the contemporary context of Indonesia. An Islamic jurit in Indonesia
may also be a sharia judge, a professor of shari‘a, a juris consult, and/or an authorjurist (whose level of ijtihad less than the four eponyms and their disciples). In the
process of codification of Islamic law, however, PA judges, who happen also
professor at sharia or collaborate with professors at sharia from sharia faculties,
have engaged more actively than the juris consults or author-jurists in articulating
legal change to meet social demands.65
Cases in point are the promulgation of the Compilation of Sharia Economy
Law (Kompilasi Hukum Ekonomi Syariah or KHES) and the Compilation of
61

Ibid., 64.
Ibid., 56-57.
63
Wael B Hallaq and Inc Ebrary, Authority, Continuity, and Change in Islamic Law
(Cambridge, UK [u.a.: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 167, 173, 233–35.
64
Ibid, 167, 233-235.
65
Alfitri, ―Whose Authority? Contesting ...‖,
62

120 | Mazahib, Vol XVI, No 2, Desember 2017

Islamic Law (Kompilasi Hukum Islam or KHI). The KHES was enacted to fill the
legal vacuum in the Islamic finance regulatory regime which is created by the
absence of fiqh in the substance of the laws in Indonesia.66 The idea of codifying
the substance of sharia economy laws came from the Supreme Court‘s Chief
Justice, Professor Bagir Mannan, who began the drafting process in October 2006.
The drafting team was led by Professor Abdul Mannan, one of the Supreme Court
Judges of Islamic Law Chamber. The KHES was finally enacted in 2008 as the
Supreme Court Regulation which instructs PA Judges to use it as a guide in
resolving Islamic law disputes in sharia economy. The KHES has been welcomed
in general by PA Judges;67 so its case is not as relevant as the KHI to be discussed
here in order to substantiate this article argument on the shifting role of PA Judges
towards the common law system judges.
The KHI is intended as the first codification of Islamic family law in
Indonesia. The KHI was drafted as an initiative of Judge Bustanul Arifin, the
Chief of Islamic Law Chamber of the Supreme Court. There was a problem of
legal indeterminacy of the Religious Courts‘ decision as a result of lack of a
unified Islamic code. In addition, there was an issue of the suitability of classical
texts referred to by the judges, for applying to the conditions then prevailing in
Indonesia.68 Judge Bustanul Arifin then proposed the project of KHI to the
President Soeharto, who then sanctioned this project to be implemented by cooperative work between the Supreme Court and the Ministry of Religious Affairs
in 1985. He then was appointed as the project leader comprising of sixteen
committee members: one from the Council of Indonesian Ulama (MUI), eight
from the Supreme Court and seven from the Ministry of Religious Affairs.69
The KHI was finally promulgated in 1991 as a Presidential Instruction to
PA Judges to use it as a guide in adjudicating Islamic family law disputes.
However, not all PA Judges feel bound with the provisions of KHI. An empirical
study conducted by Nurlaelawati on the application of the KHI in the Religious
Courts of West Java province reveals that some PA Judges continue to adhere to
the traditional legal doctrines of fiqh in resolving cases. These judges disregarded
the KHI provisions on inheritance, children‘s custody rights (hadlana), the
minimum age of marriage for girls and boys, as well as ithbat nikah (legalization
of unregistered marriage), and applied the relevant principle drawn from fiqh,
instead. In one hadlana case, judges transferred the right of custody to the father,
even though the KHI rule says that it pass on mothers, as long as the children are
under age. The Court declined to apply the KHI rule knowing that the mother has
66

Timothy Lindsey and Kerstin Steiner, Islam, Law and the State in Southeast Asia.
Volume 1, Volume 1, (London: I.B. Tauris, 2011), 94.
67
Ibid., 95-96.
68
Euis Nurlaelawati, Modernization, Tradition and Identity: The Kompilasi Hukum Islam
and Legal Practice in the Indonesian Religious Courts (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press,
2010), 218.
69
see Imam Mawardi, ―The Political Backdrop of the Enactment of the Compilation of
Islamic Laws in Indonesia,‖ in Shari’a and Politics in Modern Indonesia, in Arskal Salim and
Azyumardi Azra (eds) (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2003); M.B. Hooker,
Indonesian Syariah: Defining a National School of Islamic Law (Singapore: ISEAS, 2008);
Nurlaelawati, Modernization, Tradition and Identity.

Alfitri, Sharia Judges’ Role in Indonesia: Between The Common Law and The Civil Law Systems | 121

renounced Islam as her religion. The judges cited the opinion of the majority of
jurists (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafii and Hanbali), that being Muslim is one of the
qualifications for a person to be a guardian. These PA Judges employed a public
utility argument (maslaha) when they based their reasoning on classical fiqh
rather than the KHI.70
Similar situation has been observed by Mark Cammack on the judicial
activism of female PA Judges on divorce cases. Changes have been made to the
Islamic courts to bring justice to traditionally vulnerable women on divorce cases.
According to Cammack, this is as result of gender sensitivity trainings (see above)
to help Islamic judges understand how much impact their court decisions have on
the lives of women. Cammack note that one of the most memorable female PA
Judge figures is Judge Hanafi of PA Yogyakarta; in one divorce case, she insisted
that only after the husband provided the wife with a significant divorce settlement
(mut`ah) would she permit the man to pronounce the divorce.71
Last but not the least is the case of Isbat nikah (retroactive marriage
registration). Based on their study, Bedner and Huis find that PA Judges have
demonstrated pragmatism necessary to deal with the complex situation of
registering marriage in the interest of the weakest party instead of maintaining the
provision of (Islamic) marriage law in Indonesia. Isbat nikah allow Muslims – in
practice always Muslim women – to have their marriage recognized retroactively
by the Religious Courts if they have failed to register it and if they are not in a
situation to follow the normal path to do marriage.72 Meanwhile, the provisions of
marriage law in Indonesia (Law No. 1/1974 concerning Marriage, Law No.
7/1989 concerning Religious Courts, and Presidential Decree No. 1/1991
concerning the Compilation of Islamic Law) mean Isbat nikah to be transitional
provisions for those who had not yet registered their marriage according to the
marriage law at the time of enactment of Law No. 1/1974. The practice of
granting Isbat nikah application by PA Judges to marriages that took place post
Law No. 1/1974 most likely happen across parts of Indonesia which consider the
interests of women and children (maslaha) to have the marriages documented for
their welfare.7374

70

Nurlaelawati, Modernization, Tradition and Identity.
Mark Cammack, ―On RI‘s Islamic Judiciary,‖ The Jakarta Post, accessed December
23, 2011, www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/12/23/mark-cammack-on-ri-s-islamicjudiciary0.html,; see also Mark Cammack, ―Inching Toward Equality: Recent Developments in
Indonesian Inheritance Law,‖ Indonesian Law and Administration Review 5, no. 1 (1999); and see
also Mark Cammack, Lawrence A Young, and Tim Heaton, ―Legislating Social Change in an
Islamic Society – Indonesia‘s Marriage Law,‖ American Journal of Comparative Law 44 (1996).
72
Adriaan Bedner and Stijn Van Huis, ―Plurality of Marriage Law and Marriage
Registration for Muslims in Indonesia: A Plea for Pragmatism,‖ Utrecht Law Review 6, no. 2
(2010): 187.
73
See ibid, p. 188.
74
Bedner and Van Huis, ―Plurality of Marriage Law and Marriage Registration for Muslims in
Indonesia: A Plea for Pragmatism,‖ 188.
71

122 | Mazahib, Vol XVI, No 2, Desember 2017

F. Conclusion
The Judges of civil law system, including PA Judges in Indonesia, have
been seen as no more than people who apply the law. They are expected to find
the ruling of particular case from effective law of the land made by the state. This
portrayed role the judges of civil law system can be understood from the historical
perspective of close relationship between legal profession and bureaucracy in the
civil law system which affect the process of judges‘ appointment to the bench.
The judges of civil law system, including PA Judges, are appointed from new
graduates of sharia/law schools, and they have to undergo pre-service trainings
which taught them, inter alia, on how to find a rule out of the law and apply it to a
case. Meanwhile, the judges of common law system are invited to the bench from
experienced lawyers who are used to legal reasoning and, then, make the law itself
through their verdicts.
Current development in Indonesia, PA Judges‘ role is no longer divisional
between common law and system law. In practice some judges in the Islamic
Courts in Indonesia, for example, make the law in order to fill the legal vacuum in
the substance of Islamic family law and sharia economy law. Some of them have
departed from the provision of law when resolving a case and feel able to draw on
classical fiqh as a primary resource in order to interpret, expand, or distinguish the
statutory rules. This process of looking beyond the text of the statute to support or
validate judicial reasoning for public policy or public utility reasons is one that is
well-known and routinely used in most modern legal systems. This development,
to some extent, resembles the Islamic legal profession development in Islamic
legal history. Hence, Sharia Judges are potential to follow the suit of their
counterpart in the common law system where they can go beyond the text of law
or, even make the law, to deal with contemporary legal problems faced by Muslim
society in Indonesia.

Alfitri, Sharia Judges’ Role in Indonesia: Between The Common Law and The Civil Law Systems | 123

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