Religious Court Practice in Indonesia: Mediating Divorce Issues through Alquran Based-Model

Abstract

Divorce issues according to Islam have become increasingly popular in Indonesia. According to studies conducted in religious courts like as Cilacap, Purbalingga, and Banjarnegara, the success rate for mediation incorporated into the divorce procedural law is only 1-2 percent. The concerns are related to three factors: (1) the Supreme Court rule no. 1 year 2016 regarding mediation procedures, (2) mediator professionalism, and (3) mediation incorporated into the procedural law is not in line with the conceptions of the parties' cultures. The goal of this research is to find out how Religious Courts handle divorce mediation and how the optimal model of contextual-integrative mediation in Religious Courts procedural law can be developed. This study, based on justice/equality and participation principles, proposes an ideal model of contextual-integrative mediation in the procedural law of religious courts, with an emphasis on the model's elements: professional mediators with active participation from the parties and culturally flexible mediators. Qualitative content analysis was used to examine legislative documents in Islamic courts. The findings reveal that the mediation process in Indonesian Islamic courts is possible to do because of the existence of PERMA issued by the Indonesian Supreme Court.  In addition, the inclusion of Alquran-based model is affective for the entire Islamic Court practices provided contemporary legal issues are integrated.