CILIS 2024 Reading Group

2024 Reading Group

CILIS Reading Group in 2024 was curated by Nurul Azizah Zayzda and Rafiqa Qurrata A'yun

23 February 2024
In this article, Li provides a comparison of Indonesian colonial and contemporary labour regimes. She then discusses the forms of free and unfree labour in palm oil plantations, distinguished from the personal freedom of the labour during their employment. The article was published in 2018, before the Law No. 11 of 2020 on Job Creation was enacted, so the contemporary context was discussed around Labour Law of 2003. Nonetheless, it offers an analysis of how 'free' labour remains unprotected by the labour law.
26 April 2024
This article discusses the relationship between law and human rights in Indonesia. By examining the justiciable legal frameworks for the protection of human rights (JLFPHR) and their impact on the realisation of human rights in Indonesia, Rosser's work bridges the gap between the literature on the realisation of human rights through courts and political mobilization.
7 June 2024
This article was then published as one of the chapters in his 2023 book Settling for Less: Why States Colonize and Why They Stop. The book starts with a discussion of the theory of settler colonialism and comprises historical studies of settler colonialism efforts around the world. McNamee is an academic in Political Sciences at Monash University, and he has researched in the field of colonialism and political conflicts.
28 June 2024
“Varieties of Rule of Law; An Introduction and Provisional Conclusion” (2004), by Randall Peerenboom, from the book Asian Discourses of Rule of Law: Theories and Implementation of Rule of Law in Twelve Asian Countries, France and the U.S.
Peerenboom proposes the notion of thin (formal) and thick (substantive) conceptions of rule of law. This differentiation, according to Peerenboom, is relevant to better grasp complex realities of the existence and operation of rule of law in Asia. This category is also meant to identify the success or failure of legal reform programs supported by international donors in establishing rule of law.
Although some scholars have problematised this categorisation (for example, Rajah (2012) who find the thin rule of law idea might lead to justify authoritarianism), Peerenboom’s concept is still influential, as can be seen from how donor agencies articulate their priorities in legal reforms. This session will invite the participants of CILIS Reading group to examine Peerenboom’s argument on the rule of law and its relevance to contemporary legal issues in Asia.
30 August 2024
In this article, Wiratraman argues that “authoritarianism has been increasingly institutionalised, facilitating oligarchy networks in a cartelised political system, so that law and the judiciary merely work to strengthen the chain of impunity”. He also examines the role of civil society and the democratic movements in struggle for constitutional rights. One interesting point that can be further discussed is the wide range of concepts used by Wiratraman to understand the problems of Indonesian democracy, from concepts of cartel to oligarchy to illiberal democracy from Zakaria’s and Fukuyama’s views. Wiratraman, in the end of the article, refers to Daniel S Lev who assessed “the problems of legal and political culture in the Indonesian judiciary” in relation to Indonesian politics.
By reflecting on contemporary Indonesian law and judiciary, this article may spark further questions about what is really happening in Indonesian political-legal order. Is Indonesia now under authoritarian regime or is it just a slight authoritarian turn under democracy? How has the law been used to justify this turn? How should legal scholars and activists respond to this trend?
18 October 2024

In this article, the author discusses two themes. First, she identifies the use of ethnicity in the Indigenous rights movement. Through a case study of Marind community in Merauke, Papua, she exemplifies how ethnicity narrative creates the boundaries for group identities. This way, the adat community fits into the internationally agreed definition of 'indigenous community', opening new avenues to claim the adat community's rights. Second, she discusses the dilemma of this approach created by the state's developmental approach culminated in the Special Autonomy Law. Her conclusion touches upon the consequence of the state's legal and political discourses on producing normative solutions can be discussed further. Another article that may complement this reading particularly on state's recognition of indigeneity by Willem van der Muur.

15 November 2024

This article was published in an edited volume, "Plural Ecologies in Southeast Asia" and was based on her long-term study in/with Maluku from 1996. In this article, Bräuchler seeks to understand the land conflicts that involved business investors and the Adat communities through the lens of indigeneity. By viewing indigeneity as relational and culture as flexible, she shows how indigenous resistance and internal conflict among the indigenous communities mark the struggle over land in Indonesia. She focuses on the conflict in Aru Island's (Maluku) Indigenous ecology, drawing from the reflections of movement activists, villagers and other individuals and organisations mediating the conflict negotiation. Her elaboration on the history of the community dating back to precolonial and colonial days informs about the complexity of internal conflict, entangled with the 'grey zones' between legal systems.

10 December 2024

"Democratic backsliding, regional governance and foreign policymaking in Southeast Asia: ASEAN, Indonesia and the Philippines" (2020), by Jürgen Rüland

The article discusses the debates on democratic backsliding in ASEAN governance by focusing on Indonesia and the Philippines as the supposed promoters of democracy. The author argues that Southeast Asian countries are hardly the case for democratic backsliding as there has been no 'climax of democracy promotion'. He further explains that the obstacles to democracy promotion are the regional corporatism imported from the domestic political trajectory and the continued use of the regional cooperation norms, aka the ASEAN Way. His discussion of Indonesia exemplifies the regional extension of domestic policy, which has failed to bring substantive democratic changes in other member states.