The Historical Role of Anti-Corruption Social Movements in Shaping Criminal Law Reform

Authors
  • Nur Hasanah

    Universitas Islam Indonesia, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

    Author

  • Farah Diana

    University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia

    Author

  • Abdullahi Mohamed

    Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary

    Author

Keywords:
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Abstract

Anti-corruption criminal law reform in Indonesia has conventionally been understood as the product of the formal authority vested in state law-making institutions. In contrast, anti-corruption social movements have largely been positioned as external forces of oversight operating beyond the formal legal system. This study examines the historical role of anti-corruption social movements as a source of criminal law reform in Indonesia. It explores their implications for the future trajectory of criminal law reform. It adopts a normative juridical method within a historical-conceptual research design, employing statutory, conceptual, historical, and comparative approaches. The findings demonstrate that anti-corruption criminal law reform has not evolved linearly as a mere manifestation of state will. Rather, it has emerged through a dialectical interaction between the formal legitimacy of law-making institutions and the social legitimacy generated through the mobilisation of civil society, the media, and academic communities. On this basis, the study advances the proposition that anti-corruption social movements should be conceptualised as a normative source of criminal law reform, capable of supplying legitimacy, knowledge, and value orientations to the formulation of criminal policy without displacing the constitutional authority of the state as the formal law-maker. This perspective contributes to the development of legal reform theory by integrating responsive law, legal mobilisation, and historical institutionalism within a unified analytical framework. It further provides a conceptual foundation for formulating criminal law policies that are more participatory and responsive, while strengthening the integrity of the criminal justice system within the framework of a democratic rule-of-law state.

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2026-06-01
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The Historical Role of Anti-Corruption Social Movements in Shaping Criminal Law Reform. (2026). Indonesian Journal of Corruption and Criminal Justice, 1(2), 102-120. https://doi.org/10.65586/ijccj.v1i2.14