The Politics of Family Law Legislation in Advancing Gender Justice

Authors

  • Suud Sarim Karimullah

    Sekolah Tinggi Ilmu Ekonomi IEU, Surabaya, Indonesia

    Author

DOI:
https://doi.org/10.65586/ingefal.v1i2.21
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Abstract

The legislative politics of family law in Indonesia has evolved within a complex arena shaped by the interplay among constitutionalism, legal pluralism, religious values, human rights, and shifting socio-political realities. This study examines how legislative politics has influenced the trajectory of family law reform in advancing gender justice and evaluates the extent to which legislative changes have produced substantive rather than merely formal equality. Employing a normative legal methodology, the research integrates qualitative content analysis with legal-political analysis to examine the constitutional, ideological, and institutional dynamics underpinning family law reform. The findings demonstrate that family law reform in Indonesia represents a product of constitutional compromise, emerging from the negotiation of state interests, religious norms, international human rights principles, and the foundational values of Pancasila within a plural legal order. Although successive legislative reforms have marked significant progress towards normative equality, their practical impact remains largely confined to formal equality, as the realisation of substantive gender justice continues to be constrained by entrenched patriarchal norms, divergent judicial interpretations, and the incomplete harmonisation of legal substance, institutional structures, and legal culture. The Indonesian experience illustrates a distinctive model of family law reform that diverges from both secularisation and the formalisation of religious law. Instead, it demonstrates a deliberative, constitutionally grounded, and socially adaptive legislative process capable of reconciling religious identity, constitutional values, and gender equality within a pluralist legal system. These findings contribute to comparative scholarship on family law reform by offering an alternative model of legislative constitutionalism that advances substantive gender justice while preserving legal pluralism and cultural legitimacy.

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2026-05-03
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Vol. 1 No. 2 (2026): May
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The Politics of Family Law Legislation in Advancing Gender Justice. (2026). Indonesian Journal of Gender Justice and Family Law, 1(2), 171-191. https://doi.org/10.65586/ingefal.v1i2.21