The Chronicles of a Capitalist Lawyer

Indonesia adalah negara yang tidak pernah kehabisan ide-ide lucu nan menggemaskan. Baru beberapa hari lalu saya membahas soal kesetaraan gender dan pilihan dalam hidup guna menanggapi ide Presiden Turki yang absurd terkait kesetaraan antara pria dan wanita, Wakil Presiden Jusuf Kalla mengumandangkan ide pengurangan jam kerja untuk karyawan wanita , alasannya karena wanita punya tugas untuk mendidik anak-anaknya. Saya sangat berharap ini hanya hasil ceplas ceplos belaka dan tidak akan dijadikan bahan penyusunan kebijakan publik yang serius karena menurut saya dampaknya berpotensi merugikan. Sebagaimana sudah saya bahas di artikel sebelumnya, berpikir bahwa wanita dan pria sudah memiliki pembagian tugas yang kaku karena alasan biologis dan doktrin merupakan cara berpikir yang melantur. Apabila kita melihat konsep klasik keluarga yang katanya merupakan persatuan dari suami dan istri, mengapa tugas mengurus anak dan rumah tangga dikhususkan untuk ibu? Pendukung perkawinan yang sah dan

I wonder how many people are aware of this, but our Legislative Board (DPR) is currently in the process of drafting a law on gender equality. I take this news as a positive, development and I hope that the law can be soon promulgated. What concerns me are the various critiques made against such laws based on the notion that women’s and men’s rights and obligations are not the same, especially in the family. Thus, these critics urge that the state should instead maintain a division of tasks between men and women in a family, which of course has been stipulated under the marriage law. This is indeed a pity since there are two major misconceptions relating to the above notion. First, people may believe what they want to believe, but it’s outrageous to ask the state to regulate how people should manage their family matters. While Islam provides certain guidelines on how husbands and wives should interact and how they should manage their family, from a legal perspective,

A couple of days ago, the Constitutional Court decided that Article 43(1) of Law No. 1/1974 on Marriage is deemed conditionally unconstitutional. You may read the complete decision here . This is indeed an interesting development. For many years, most legal scholars agree that a child born outside a legitimate marriage will only have legal relationship with his/her mother and not with the father. In other words, the Constitutional Court decision revolutionizes the entire concept of illegitimate child. The big question is, is it a good thing? I must say that I am disappointed that the decision is poorly reasoned. From a total of 45 pages, the majority opinion only consists of 3.5 pages. It is true that you can't assess the quality of a legal opinion merely from its length, but still, I think that the majority should further elaborate their thoughts before making such a revolution, especially when they claim that: (i) marriage registration is only an administrative requirement of m

The legalization of same sex marriage will always be a controversial issue to be discussed as it encompasses many fundamental aspects of human life, including religion, morality, law and economics. In this post, I will focus on two issues that in my opinion are worthy to be discussed before we can consider the incorporation and legalization of same sex marriage into our law, i.e. (i) the problem of equal position in traditional heterosexual marriage, and (ii) the legal complexity that same sex marriage will impose to ordinary family law. A. The Problem of Equal Position in Heterosexual Marriage As you may be aware, even in the most developed nations, there is still a tendency for distribution of domestic tasks between the husband and wife. In general, the husband will be most likely responsible for providing the main family income while the wife will be responsible for maintaining the household chores, which usually includes the additional task of grooming and raising the children.