Prof. Bagir Manan:
Risky, Formalizing Sharia Law into Positive Law
Prof. Bagir Manan (left) presenting his paper 'Substantive Marriage Law in the Religious Courts' moderated by Prof. Takdir Rahmadi (right).
Jakarta | badilag.net/english (22/2)
Prof. Bagir Manan, former Supreme Court Chief Justice, said there were a number of risks to formalize sharia law into positive law. First, it will ideologically undermine sharia law since the choice of law will further give precedence to positive law over sharia. In addition, there will be secularization (not secularism) of sharia law, i.e. marriage law.
Prof. Bagir asserted those statements when presenting his paper at the national seminar on Religious Courts’ Substantive Law in Jakarta (19/2).
.The second risk is the possibility of an incomplete (positive) law. When the positive law is proven incomplete, will sharia law still be the main option? Bagir asked.
And the other risk is that every law scholar can study the positive-made sharia law. Thus, it is no longer relevant to stipulate sharia scholar as one requirement to be a Religious Courts judge. Furthermore, it will trigger to a merger of marriage cases at Religious Courts into General Courts.
Commenting on the much-debated criminal sanctions in the draft bill on Religious Courts marriage law, Bagir said all should be careful with imposing sanctions since the world trend shows a tendency to reduce punishment (criminal sanctions) and prefers to seek other settlements.
“Turkey and Israel, for example, failed when they attempted to impose sanctions on marriage law”, Bagir said.
“A law is considered good when it has philosophical, sociological, and juridical backgrounds. But many forget the consequences of the law philosophically, sociologically and judicially,” he added. (avicenna)