Marital Property in California and Indonesia: Community Property and Harta Bersama

One of the more notable features of Indonesian Islamic law is its recognition of the concept of jointly owned marital property. The Indonesian doctrine of joint marital property bears a striking similarity to the community property system in California. In both systems the marital estate consists of property acquired during the marriage through the efforts of either of the spouses. Both systems distinguish marital property from separate property and both define separate property as all property owned by either spouse prior to the marriage or acquired by gift or inheritance afterwards. Apart from their doctrinal similarity, Indonesian Islamic marital property and California community property are alike in another respect: Both are transplanted elements existing in foreign legal environments. Indonesian marital property is an indigenous Southeast Asian practice in an Islamic conceptual structure, while community property is a continental civil law institution in an Anglo-American common law system. In both cases, moreover, the conception of marriage that underlies the doctrine of joint marital property is out of harmony with the understanding of marriage reflected in the system\u27s treatment of marriage generally. This Article compares the process of incorporation of joint marital property in Indonesia and California. The results of this comparison contradict the assumption that sacred legal systems are inherently less capable of change and adaptation than secular systems. Focusing first on California, it is shown that a fully egalitarian system of joint marital property did not emerge until the 1970s, more than 100 years after the civil law doctrine of community property was formally adopted in the state constitution in 1849. In Indonesia, by contrast, the indigenous customary concept of marital property encountered relatively little resistance from Islamic authorities. By analogizing household economic production to a commercial partnership, Islamic jurists were able to embrace joint marital property by recasting the doctrine as an Islamic institution

The Islamic Legal System in Indonesia

This chapter describes the historical evolution and current structure of Indonesia’s Islamic legal structure. The current system of Islamic courts in Indonesia is traceable to a late nineteenth century Dutch decree establishing a system of Islamic tribunals on the islands of Java and Madura. The decree created collegial courts in which a district-level religious official called the penghulu acted as chair and was assisted by member judges chosen from the local religious elite. The courts were authorized to decide matrimonial and inheritance disputes, but execution of the courts’ decisions required an executory decree from the civil court. The system was expanded to south Kalimantan in the 1930s, but at the same time the jurisdiction over inheritance was transferred to the civil courts. At independence, the Islamic judiciary was placed under the authority of the Ministry of Religion, which used executive powers to expand the system to other parts of the country. It was not until 1989 with the passage of the Religious Judicature Act that the existence of the courts was guaranteed by statute. The 1989 Act also vested the courts with enforcement powers and mandated changes in the organization and staffing of the courts modeled after the parallel system of civil courts. The substantive jurisdiction of the courts has also been expanded to include inheritance cases as well as a so far little-used power to decide cases involving economic transactions based on Islamic law. In 2004, the administrative supervision of the Islamic judiciary was transferred from the Ministry of Religion to the Supreme Court. In 1999, the province of Aceh was granted special autonomy status that included the authority to enforce Islamic law in areas beyond the established jurisdictions of Shari‛a courts in the rest of the country. These developments add a new dimension to the institutional structures for the practice of Islamic law in the countr

Democracy, Human Rights, and Islamic Family Law in Post-Soeharto Indonesia

This article examines the developments in Indonesian family law in the aftermath of the political transition that occurred in 1998. Its focus is on the position of the Islamic courts and the role of the women’s movement as a driver of reform. Combining literature on gender, Islam, and the state in Indonesia with new material such as divorce rates, cases of the Constitutional Court, and law reform initiatives, the authors argue that the family law reform processes already underway before 1998 have not changed much and have continued to lead to more state control of Islamic family law. Yet, even though the reforms since 1998 have not directly targeted family law, they have unleashed processes of liberalization, democratization and decentralization that have emboldened Indonesian women in the exercise of their rights and have invigorated debates over further reform

An Empirical Assessment of Divorce Law in Indonesia

A discussion of the effect of the marriage Act 1974 against divorce behavior Muslim community in Indonesia can be said to be rare. Various writings that discuss the application of these laws focus more on aspects of institutional, legal and political.DOI: 10.15408/sdi.v4i4.76

Introduction by Guest Editors

This book grew out of conversations among the three guest editors, Mark Cammack, Michael Feener, and Clark Lombardi, in the summer of 2008 about the general lack of attention among scholars of Southeast Asian Islam on important questions about the foundations of the region’s Islamic legal structures. First, despite its evident importance, there has been little research on the process by which legislators and judges decide which interpretation of Islamic law will be formally applied by the state apparatus. Another important question that has been largely ignored by scholars concerns the qualifications of Islamic legal professionals. The three Southeast Asian states treated in this volume—Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore—have separate systems of Islamic courts. Although the educational background of those who staff these courts will clearly inform the way they understand, interpret, and apply the law, to date little research has been done on the educational processes by which judges who serve on Islamic courts are trained to think about Islamic law. Studies on the means by which judges are appointed and regulated have also been lacking—even though the decision to favor one type of candidate surely affects the interpretation and application of Islamic law in the courts. Finally, lawyers who practice before Islamic courts play a crucial role in framing and presenting the issues for decision and in mediating between the courts that apply Islamic law and the public who have recourse to the state’s official Islamic legal institutions, but research on the professional training and governance of these lawyers is almost entirely lackin

Coherence protection in coupled quantum systems

HMC acknowledges studentship funding from EPSRC under grant no. EP/G03673X/1. PGK acknowledges support from EPSRC (EP/M010910/1). BWL acknowledges support from EPSRC (EP/K025562/1). PRE acknowledges funding from SFI (15/IACA/3402). JK acknowledges financial support from EPSRC programs “TOPNES” (EP/I031014/1) and “Hybrid-Polaritonics” (EP/M025330/1).The interaction of a quantum system with its environment causes decoherence, setting a fundamental limit on its suitability for quantum information processing. However, we show that if the system consists of coupled parts with different internal energy scales then the interaction of one part with a thermal bath need not lead to loss of coherence from the other. Remarkably, we find that the protected part can remain coherent for longer when the coupling to the bath becomes stronger or the temperature is raised. Our theory will enable the design of decoherence-resistant hybrid quantum computers.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Tetrahydropyrazolo[1,5-a]Pyrimidine-3-Carboxamide and N-Benzyl-6′,7′-Dihydrospiro[Piperidine-4,4′-Thieno[3,2-c]Pyran] analogues with bactericidal efficacy against Mycobacterium tuberculosis targeting MmpL3

Mycobacterium tuberculosis is a major human pathogen and the causative agent for the pulmonary disease, tuberculosis (TB). Current treatment programs to combat TB are under threat due to the emergence of multi-drug and extensively-drug resistant TB. As part of our efforts towards the discovery of new anti-tubercular leads, a number of potent tetrahydropyrazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidine-3-ca​rboxamide(THPP) and N-benzyl-6′,7′-dihydrospiro[piperidine-4,​4′-thieno[3,2-c]pyran](Spiro) analogues were recently identified against Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium bovis BCG through a high-throughput whole-cell screening campaign. Herein, we describe the attractive in vitro and in vivo anti-tubercular profiles of both lead series. The generation of M. tuberculosis spontaneous mutants and subsequent whole genome sequencing of several resistant mutants identified single mutations in the essential mmpL3 gene. This ‘genetic phenotype’ was further confirmed by a ‘chemical phenotype’, whereby M. bovis BCG treated with both the THPP and Spiro series resulted in the accumulation of trehalose monomycolate. In vivo efficacy evaluation of two optimized THPP and Spiro leads showed how the compounds were able to reduce >2 logs bacterial cfu counts in the lungs of infected mice

“A very orderly retreat”: Democratic transition in East Germany, 1989-90

East Germany's 1989-90 democratisation is among the best known of East European transitions, but does not lend itself to comparative analysis, due to the singular way in which political reform and democratic consolidation were subsumed by Germany's unification process. Yet aspects of East Germany's democratisation have proved amenable to comparative approaches. This article reviews the comparative literature that refers to East Germany, and finds a schism between those who designate East Germany's transition “regime collapse” and others who contend that it exemplifies “transition through extrication”. It inquires into the merits of each position and finds in favour of the latter. Drawing on primary and secondary literature, as well as archival and interview sources, it portrays a communist elite that was, to a large extent, prepared to adapt to changing circumstances and capable of learning from “reference states” such as Poland. Although East Germany was the Soviet state in which the positions of existing elites were most threatened by democratic transition, here too a surprising number succeeded in maintaining their position while filing across the bridge to market society. A concluding section outlines the alchemy through which their bureaucratic power was transmuted into property and influence in the “new Germany”