Towards the Javanese Legal Culture: A Call to Put the Horse Back in front of the Cart

• Author: Pranoto Iskandar
• Position: The Institute for Migrant Rights
• Pages: 641-644

e Indonesian Journal of International & Comparative Law

ISSN: 2338-7602; E-ISSN: 2338-770X

http://www.ijil.org

© 2020 e Institute for Migrant Rights Press

towards thE JavanEsE lEgal

CulturE

A CALL TO PUT THE HORSE BACK IN FRONT OF THE

CART

Pranoto Iskandar

e Institute for Migrant Rights

E-mail: pranotoi@imr.or.id

With the publication of e Javanese Way of Law,1 Mr. Mason Hoadley

further illuminates the questions that relate to pre-colonial Javanese

engagement with the law. Previously, Mr. Hoadley co-author, among

many other scholarly contributions, wrote an introductory volume to

Balinese law.2 Supposedly, this book is his latest statement in further-

ance of his previous works. To be sure, Mr. Hoadley’s scholarly line

of work is a rare bird. at makes Mr. Hoadley recent book a timely

contribution for the eld that has thus far been neglected. So much so

that it is hard to conceive it as a contribution to any present eld of legal

inquiry. Indeed, it is dicult to nd a recent discussion on this subject

in legal periodicals.

Technical notes aside, e Javanese Way of Law provides us the

much-needed clarication with respect to the Javanese conception

1. M C. H, T J W  L: E M S

P (2019).

2. See M C. H  M. B. H, A I  J

L (1981). As Mr. Hoadley has kindly pointed out in his email, he has

misleadingly describe it as “Javanese” law. In particular, Mr. Hoadley

“argue[s] that the Agama text is more Balinese than Javanese, just because

it lacks the distinquishing feature of early-modern Javanese law, namely the

sloka phonomena. A partial correction can be found in the rst two chapters

of M H, I D T H J  H

K (2009). Mason Hoadley (personal communication, Oct. 26, 2020).