Strategic Governance of Health Services in Pekalongan Regency: a Socio-Legal Analysis of Social Security for The Underprivileged
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.28918/Abstract
This study examines the persistent humanitarian crisis of Merariq Kodeq (underage elopement) within the Sasak indigenous community of Lombok, Indonesia, through the lens of socio-legal pluralism. Despite the state's aggressive legal intervention through Law No. 16 of 2019, which raised the minimum marriage age to 19, local customary practices (awig-awig) continue to normalize child marriage. Using an empirical legal method with a socio-legal approach, this research deconstructs the legal tension between the state's "command-and-control" legalism and the "living law" of the Sasak community. Data were obtained through in-depth interviews with customary leaders (Pemangku Adat), religious figures, and local religious court judges, combined with an analysis of recent judicial decisions. Applying Sally Falk Moore's theory of Semi-Autonomous Social Fields, this study reveals that Merariq Kodeq persists because the customary social field possesses its own internal rule-making and rule-enforcing capacities that effectively resist state intrusion. This paper argues that state-driven child protection laws will remain inert without a structural integration of humanitarian values into local customary institutions. Finally, the study proposes a collaborative ecological governance model that empowers customary councils (Majelis Krama Adat) as active agents of child protection rather than adversaries of state law.
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