4 Discussion
The adoption of law resulting from the entry of
foreign legal institutions with different legal systems
refers to the transfer of certain legal norms or legal
provisions from a certain country to another during
the law-making process. Therefore, legal adoption
refers to the process of making laws and regulations,
where the legislature has two options, namely: (1)
borrowing or taking over laws that have already
existed and applying them to other countries, or (2)
because each country has traditions, cultures,
histories, and identities that differ from one another,
they carry out their own process of searching for
legal norms and rules that are considered suitable to
the identity of the state, [17].
The entry of legal institutions originating from
the Anglo-Saxon legal tradition and its system of
Common Law provides reasons for adopting foreign
legal institutions because:
1) Legal transplantation can easily and quickly be
carried out. It is a potential new source of law;
2) Legal transplants often follow a colonial period
(colonialism); and
3) Legal transplantation cannot be separated from
the role of legal experts, who tend to imitate laws
that are considered good and beneficial for them,
[18].
However, the adoption of foreign legal
institutions can be carried out depending on the
strength and weaknesses of the relationship between
the to-be-adopted laws and the political, social, and
cultural conditions of the country where the laws are
to be adopted. In this case, the implementation of
the law that was adopted from one legal system to
another is definitely different from the country of
origin’s law.
The tendency to include the system of Common
Law legal in the Indonesian legal system is also a
consequence of the USA’s role as a superpower.
There is a systematic introduction to American law.
Apart from that, elite legal experts are generally
alumni of American, British, and Australian
universities. American policies are popular in the
legal development of developing countries, as
reviewed by Thomas Franck and quoted by
Fullarton in the article "Can American Law and its
Legal Institutions Help Developing Countries." This
referred to the 1966 Foreign Assistance Act, where
congress approved the International Development
Aid, [18].
In the current era of globalization, to fulfill their
needs, citizens are conditioned to interact with each
other. This resulted in a meeting between the
various existing legal systems to meet the legal
needs of various parties. It is an unavoidable part of
the existing legal developments in society. So, the
need for new legal provisions increases. At a certain
point, this need can be covered by the Anglo-Saxon
legal system, i.e., the common law system. Thus,
some of its elements are accommodated in the
Indonesian legal system, [19].
The Indonesian legal system can adapt to
developments through the adoption of laws. Thus, it
can simultaneously absorb the substance of the
rechtsstaat and the rule of law. Regulations that
accommodate legal developments are enacted to
accommodate the common law. This concept is
known as the prismatic concept. In addition to the
formally-perceived law, the law is also materially
perceived, where in deciding a case, the judge has
the right to interpret and argue outside the
provisions of the law. Therefore, the legal system
requires the enforcement of substantial justice
through formal legal rules. To achieve substantial
justice, it also requires legal certainty based on
formal legal rules, [20].
Previous research was conducted by Al
Habsyi, where he discussed the influence of
Anglo-Saxons in the aspect of the Indonesian
legal institution. Countries that adopted the
Anglo-Saxon legal system have several types of
courts, such as the US District Court and the
Trial Court. Some other courts are also known,
such as the US Claim Court that is specialized in
federal or semi-judicial agencies. It handles
lawsuits against the US government. There is also
the Court of International Trade that handles
cases on customs. Then, the Patent and
Trademark Office handles cases on patents and
trademarks.
Even with different authority sectors, after the
Reformation, Indonesia adopted this system by
creating several special courts in the civil sector,
such as the Court of Trade, that handles cases of
bankruptcy and lawsuits against intellectual
property that includes copyright, trademark,
patent, trade circuit, industrial design, and
design of integrated circuit layout. The Court of
Industrial Relationships handles cases on labor
and other industry relationships. The Taxation
Court handles cases on tax. Then, there is a
special court called the Sharia Assembly in Aceh
Province, Indonesia, that adjudicates familial
cases. The formation of such courts indicates the
influence of the Anglos-Saxon legal system in the
Indonesian legal institution, [5].
An effort to accommodate the common law is the
issuance of regulations on the Formation of
Statutory Regulations. It is an effort to maintain the
consistency of legal products so that there are no
WSEAS TRANSACTIONS on SYSTEMS
DOI: 10.37394/23202.2023.22.21
Arief Budiono, Wardah Yuspin,
Siti Syahida Nurani, Fahmi Fairuzzaman,
Sofyan Wimbo Agung Pradnyawan, Siska Diana Sari