VAN VOLLENHOVEN on INDONESIAN ADAT LA W from a Press Photograph, Batavia 1932 KONINKLIJK INSTITUUT VOOR TAAL-, LAND-EN VOLKENKUNDE
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VAN VOLLENHOVEN ON INDONESIAN ADAT LA W From a press photograph, Batavia 1932 KONINKLIJK INSTITUUT VOOR TAAL-, LAND-EN VOLKENKUNDE TRANSLATION SERIES 20 VAN VOLLENHOVEN ON INDONESIAN ADAT LAW Selections from HET ADATRECHT VAN NEDERLANDSCH-INDI~ (Volume I, 1918; Volume II, 1931) edited by J. F. HOLLEMAN with an Introducdon by H. W. J. SONIUS Springer-Science+Business Media, B.V. 1981 Translation by: J. F. Holleman Rache! Kalis Kenneth Maddock The translation of this work has been made possib'e by a generous subsidy from the Netherlands Organization for the Advancement of Pure Research (ZWO) at The Hague. For its publication a substantial contribution was received from the former Adatrechtstichting. © 1981 by Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht Originally published by Martinus Nijhoff1981. Softcover reprint ofthe hardcover 1st edition 1981 All Tights TeseTved, including the Tight to translate OT to TepToduce this book OT paTts theTeof in any form. ISBN 978-90-247-6174-6 ISBN 978-94-017-5878-9 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-94-017-5878-9 To the memory of F.D.H. and J.H.A.L. who sacrificed so much to this venture but did not live to see the result. CONTENTS Foreword by J. F. Holleman . IX Acknowledgements . XXIV Editorial notes XXV Orthography, XXV; Abbreviations, XXVI Introduction by H. W. J. Sonius . XXIX Notes, LXV; Works cited, LXVI Chapter I Adat, Adat Law, Native Law 1 Chapter II The Elements of Adat Law . 7 Chapter III The Study of Adat Law 24 Chapter IV Law Areas . 41 1. Genealogical groupings . 45 2. Territorial and genealogical groupings 48 3. Territorial groupings without genealogical communities . 49 4. Voluntary corporate associations . 51 Chapter V Aceh 54 Sources, 54; Delimitation, 55; Jural communities, 56; Individuals, 60; Executive, judicial, legislative powers, 62; Justice, 71; Indigenous legislation, 78; Inter-local law, 78; Law of kinship, 79; Marriage law, 81; Law of succession, 91; Land law, 95; Law of chattels, 106; Wrongs, 113; Legal remedies, 118; Developments, 119 Chapter VI The Minangkabau Law Area. 123 Delimitation, 123; Law of kinship, 124; Jural commu nities, 126; Individuals, 127; Executive, judicial, legis lative powers, 128; Justice, 132; Indigenous legislation, Contents VII 133; Inter-locallaw, 134; Law of marriage, 134; Adat pusako, adat kamanakan, 135; Law of succession, 136; Land law, 137; Law of chattels, 140; Wrongs, 141; Legal remedies, 143; Developments, 144 Chapter VII Central and East Java, with Madura . 145 Delimitation, 146; Jura! communities, 147; Individuals, 155; Viilage government, 159; Law of kinship, 165; Law of marriage, 169; Land law, 179; Law of chattels, 198; Wrongs, 210; Legal remedies, 212 Chapter VIII The Maintenance and Development of Indo- nesian Adat Law 213 1. Voluntary observance . 213 2. Attested observance 222 3. The role of the Courts . 230 4. Binding character of adat law . 256 Chapter IX Epilogue . 260 Annex A Guide to Adat Research (1910) . 262 Annex B Publications on adat law by C. van Vollenhoven (A) Het Adatrecht van Nederlandsch-Indie Table of Contents: Vol. I (1906-18) . 266 Vol. II (1924-31) . 267 Vol. 111 (Essays on adat law, 1901-1931) . 271 (B) Other publications 275 Notes 276 Bibliography 282 General Index 291 Index of places, ethnic groups, and languages 303 FOREWORD I. The plan to prepare a translated selection of Professor Van Vollen hoven's writings on Indonesian adat law was first seriously mooted in the early 1950s. The motivations for such a venture were clear and compelling. For more than three decades, from the turn of the century until his premature death in 1933, Van Vollenhoven had been the mastermind and driving force behind the first systematic study of the rieb variety of indigenous Indonesian law, and the foremost champion of its reeognition in the eolonial system of the Duteh East Indies. His influenee on eoloniallegal policy had been immense (see Introduction, below). His towering seholarship and rare powers of persuasion as a writer and teaeher had inspired a whole generation of workers in the field - eolonial servants, aeademics, missionaries and others - whose researehes had yielded a vast new adat law literature, all faithfully east into the eonceptual eategories and distinetive terminology whieh Van Vollenhoven had designed to stress the 'oriental' identity of Indonesian law. Yet very little ofthisrieb store of knowledge was accessible to the outside world. Admittedly, in 1948, Hoebel and Schiller had published an English edition of Ter Haar's authoritative 1939 treatise on Indone sian adat law, but of the master's own writings in this field virtually nothing was known to non-Duteh readers, exeept a French translation (1935) of his brilliant essay on the 'discovery' of adat law (1928) and a few short papers in English and French. Holland had lost the Duteh East Indies, but eould pride itself on a wealth of scholarly studies on every aspect of Indonesian life and cul ture, which, if translated into a world language, might be of benefit to scholars everywhere. (The Royal Institute for the Tropics in Amster dam had, in fact, already started with a long-term programme of trans lating seleeted Dutch studies on Indonesian culture.) Moreover, there X Van Vollenhoven on Indonesian Adat Law was evidence that the English version of Ter Haar's book had aroused the interest of foreign scholars in the writings of Van Vollenhoven himself, among them experts on African law like Gluckman and Phillips (letter P. J. Idenburg to J. W. M. van Eysinga, 23/6/52). Under the aegis of the Leiden Institute of Oriental Sturlies (Oostersch Instituut) a commission was formed to explore the possibilities. lts members included the Leidenprofessors F. M. van Asbeck, V. E. Korn, R. D. Kollewijn, J. H. A. Logemann (chairman), and Dr. J. Prins all of whom had studiedunder Van Vollenhoven. From the beginning it was realized that only a small selection from Van Vollenhoven's vast oeuvre on adat law could be contemplated, and that even the production of a relatively modest volume would present major problems of translation and editing. The main problems, as seen by the commission, were two. First, Van Vollenhoven's highly individual style would be difficult to reproduce in English, and in particular the problern of finding suitable English equivalents for the technical terminology he had designed would pre sent a major challenge. Secondly, V an Vollenhoven had written with an eye to administra tive and judicial officers in the Dutch colonial service, and his descrip tion and analysis of indigenous institutions and legal concepts were closely interwoven with a critical scrutiny of statutory provisions and administrative practices. However pertinent at the time, many of these were no Ionger relevant, or were even incomprehensible to English readers not thoroughly acquainted with the complexities of the pre-war legal and administrative system in the Dutch East Indies. Moreover, eschewing footnotes, Van Vollenhoven had put his often very extensive and predominantly Dutch source references in parentheses. In a trans lated text most of these would needlessly encumber readers who have no Dutch. In short, the preparatory work alone of 'pruning' the selected texts before their translation would demand a very consider· able scholarly effort and amount of time. The commission thought it wise to invite Dr. A. Phillips (then at the London School of Economics) as an external adviser. Hirnself no reader of Dutch, Phillips welcomed the project as likely to stimulate the growing numbers of Anglo-American scholars in the field of customary law, but in view of Van Vollenhoven's stylistic and termino logical idiosyncracies he stressed that the production of a 'good and easily readable English text' was of first importance if the work was to make any impression at all. Furthermore, the work would need an Foreword XI authoritative introductory essay outlining the historical significance of Van Vollenhoven's work, showing its background in the complex ad ministrative and legal system of the Dutch East Indies, the trends in Dutch coloniallegal and economic policy, and the development of adat law schotarship from the early 1900s onwards. A further difficulty, never fully appreciated by the commission, was that its own persistent striving for near-perfection was to prove a major obstacle to the satisfactory completion of the work within a reasonable time. My father, F. D. Holleman, was invited to write the Introduction and to prepare the Van Vollenhoven texts for translation. He had been a student of Van Vollenhoven, and his successor to the Leiden chair of Adat Law between 1934 and 1939, but had since retumed to his native South Africa, where he taught at Stellenbosch University. His academic commitments made him decline the first task, but he agreed to take care of the second when he was told that his son was being asked to make the translation. (Phillips, having read some of my publications on African customary law, conceded that my command of English, though 'not perfect' and probably in need of some expert editing, might be good enough to turn out a translation not unworthy of Van Vollen hoven's scholarship. My familiarity with his work and my training in this field of study were considered distinct advantages.) I accepted the task after much hesitation. I had more than enough work in hand at the time, which even prevented me from working up my own field material the publication of which was overdue. Also I had little experience as a translator, and though much less familiar with Van Vollenhoven's writings than the commission seemed to believe, I had read enough of his work to have some idea of the formid able difficulties I would face. The selection was to be taken entirely from the monumental Adatrecht van Nederlandsch-Indie, a work in which, more than in most of Van Vollenhoven's writings, the force of his pure if slightly archaic language was likely to be lost through his frequent use of a highly involved syntax, utterly different from English usage.