The Beginning of Law and The Adat Recht1

For beginning, lets we talk about the simple thing which us called, the family. As we know, the law began with the family. The father was the head of the family. As we know, the family, or become the group of family, they will choose someone who selected to be their larger group leader. The chief of the tribe made rules of laws to govern the dealings of one clan with another But the head of the clan still made the laws for the family group. If a tribal law was broken, the chief would give the punishment for those who broke the rules in their family group. Tribal laws were not written and some of them are actually still in force today. For example, a man who was a member of one clan could not marry a woman of the same clan. He had to choose his bride for another clan, but with the same tribe. It was Dutch who introduced European laws to the country. As early, as 1824, there was a concept of separate law made by the Dutch government. The population was then divided in to three groups for laws were concerned, namely Europeans, natives, and foreign oriental. Many historians stated that the traits of custom of the people were the basic of adat law. Trough in traditional culture, adat is an embodiment of the traditional values and moral as well as an expression of universal values, today adat laws still regulates such aspects of life like marriage, birth, death inheritance and, and divorce. When speaking the law of Indonesia, one must go back to period when the Indonesia archipelago was under Dutch colonial rule. As has been previously mentioned there were separate laws in the country under the colonial government in 1826. Different groups of people were subject to different law. Another factor which is of great significance in study the origin of law in Indonesia is the existence of the different ethnic groups in the country. The various ethnic groups have different cultural background, values and custom with regard to many aspect of life. For marriage, minangkabau follow the matrilineal system, while the batak adopt the patrilineal system. In the batak clan system, members of the clan should assist one another on marriage ceremonies and certain type of hierarchy in the marriage organization, such as who should be the speaker in decided by custom. The bilateral system is common in Indonesia. So, the origin of law in Indonesia can be learned by our knowledge about the colonial Dutch rules in Indonesia. Its the beginning and Indonesia also has the adat laws.

http://www.varia.dosen.narotama.ac.id/files/2011/09/CHAPTER-3.pdf.