Al-J āmi‘ah, Vol. 51, No. 2, 2013 M1435 H
251 Female Judges in the Religious Courts of Indonesia
1. Administration and Management
Since its inception, the Islamic court of Indonesia has experienced dynamic developments. Formally established in the colonial period as a
priesterraad , the Islamic court system has developed over time in terms of
its institutions, laws, and human resources.
5
Authority over the courts has shifted over the years. During the colonial period, Islamic legal institutions
fell under the administrative purview of the Ministry of Justice. After achieving independence in 1945, the Indonesian government formed the
Ministry of Religious Affairs and addressed the matter of authority over
the Islamic courts in its irst oficial act.
6
Under the Ministry of Religious Affairs, the Islamic court of Indonesia was supervised for several decades
by the Directorate of Development of Religious Justice Direktorat Pembinaan Badan Peradilan AgamaDitbinbapera. Despite the many
challenges it encountered from time to time, the court survives today and
has even become stronger, now having the status of an oficial state court, as stipulated in Law 14 of 1970 of the Basic Act on Indonesian Judiciary.
This Law further introduced signiicant changes in both the institutional and juridical supervision of the Islamic courts. Article
10 of the Act establishes that judicial power is to be exercised by four types of courts: general courts, Islamic courts, military courts, and
administrative courts.
7
It was stated further that the Supreme Court is the highest judicial authority in the country and, as such, has the power
to review decisions from the highest appellate authority within all four systems. The management and administration of the Islamic court was
further regulated in 1989 when the Religious Judicature Act was issued, which assigned administrative responsibility for the Islamic courts to the
Ministry of Religion, and responsibility for “technical juridical matters” to the Supreme Court.
8
5
For the best account on this issue, see for instance, Daniel S. Lev, Islamic Court
; Mark E. Cammack, “The Indonesian Islamic Judiciary,” in Mark E. Cammack and Michael Feener eds., Islamic Law in Contemporary Indonesia: Ideas and Institutions
Massachuset: Harvard University Press, 2007, pp. 146-169; Mark E. Cammack and Michael Feener, “The Islamic Legal System in Indonesia,”
Paciic Rim Law and Policy Journal
, vol. 21, 1, 2012, pp. 13-42.
6
Daniel S. Lev, Islamic Court, pp. 41-42. See also M.B. Hooker, Islamic Law in South-East Asia
Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press 1984, p. 255.
7
See Basic Act on Judicial Power No. 14 1970.
8
See Religious Judicature Act No. 71989.
Al-J āmi‘ah, Vol. 51, No. 2, 2013 M1435 H
252 Euis Nurlaelawati Arskal Salim
This division of responsibility ended in 2004 as a result of a more general package of judicial reforms introduced following the resignation
of President Suharto. In 1999 the government issued a 1999 amendment to the 1970 Basic Act on Judicial Power, which established a ‘one roof ”
system of judicial administration. This Amendment aims to transfer
administrative, structural, and inancial authority over all four branches of the Indonesian judiciary to the Supreme Court.
9
The Ministry of Religion, which was initially reluctant to implement the rule to place the Islamic
courts under the authority of the Supreme Court, inally transferred the administration, structure, and inances of the Islamic courts from its own
auspices to the Supreme Court in 2004.
10
The Bureau of Islamic Courts Badan Peradilan AgamaBadilag, the ofice within the Supreme Court
that supervises the Islamic judiciary, adopted and recruited most of the personnel from the Directorate of Development of Religious Justice.
The Ministry of Religious Affairs then eliminated this directorate from its structure.
2. Recruitment and Number of Judges
Kategori