Review State Marriage and Civil Marriage: The Role of State Policy on Interreligious Marriage in Central Java Konsep

The word "policy" is etymologically derived from the English word "policy" or the

Dutch word "politiek". In terminology, policy means a set of concepts or principles that are

the basis for doing a job, leadership and how to behave.1 So, the expression of legal policy is

synonymous with political law. Mahfudh further said that political law is also a legal policy

or legal direction needed by the state to enforce it in order to achieve its objectives by making

the new law or replacing the old one. 2 Thus, legal policy is a complete system of performance

that involves the understanding and knowledge of law enforcers to operate and enforce its

provisions taking into account the sense of justice and benefits to society.3

Actually everyone has the same rights when Indonesian citizens choose a life partner.

Even if it's a couple with a different religion or someone who doesn't have a religion. If we

refer to the 5th pillar of Pancasila, article 28b of the 1945 Constitution, and Law no. 39 of

1999 concerning Human Rights article 10 paragraph (1). But in reality marriage in Indonesia

only limits marriage to only 6 legal religions. Meanwhile, according to Law no. 39 of 1999

concerning Human Rights article 10 paragraph (1) which writes "Everyone has the right to

build a family and continue their life of their descendants through legal marriage and free will.

As Mahfud Md put it" contradictory because the state gives freedom and rights to everyone.

citizens to raise families and continue their offspring while on the other hand, this permission

is limited by the provisions of the law of marriage "

Regarding freedom of religion, Carillo de Albornoz, as Koshy, mentioned that religious

freedom or freedom of religion has four main aspects, namely freedom of conscience, freedom

of religious expression, freedom of association, and freedom of religious institutionalization. 4

So, it can be concluded that each citizen has the right to marry because it is a civil right that

should be owned by the state.

Marriage in Indonesia, prior to the birth of the Marriage Law No.1 of 1974, was

regulated in several laws, namely religious law, customary law and Western law. However,

after that there was no explicit law regulating interfaith marriage.

It's just that the Marriage Law Number 1 of 1974 has a different scope from Staatsblad

1898 No. 158. Article 64 of the Marriage Law states that "what is meant by mixed marriage

in the Marriage Law Number 1 of 1974 is a marriage between two people in Indonesia who are

subject to different laws because of different nationalities in which one of the parties has

Indonesian citizenship".5

Therefore, it is obvius that interfaith marriage regulations are separated from the

normative validity of the Marriage Law with administrative regulations in Law No. 23 of 2006

concerning demographic administration and this makes inter-religious marriages often referred

to as civil marriages.

Regarding the policy of interfaith marriage, the policy has not yet reached the level of

normative justice and procedural justice. It can be seen how the normative understanding of

interfaith marriage has not been integrated and balanced with other provisions, especially

Article 2 paragraph (1), Article 21 and Article 66 of the Marriage Law Number 1 of 1974.

Likewise, there were found no attempts to correlate the issue of interfaith marriage with the

context of freedom of religion as stated in the Article 29 of the 1945 Constitution. It seems

that policy makers have failed to recognize the relevance of several related provisions. In the

process of implementing the interfaith marriage policy, this normative and narrow perspective

greatly influences the implementation of the interfaith marriage policy.