Adaptive Resolution of Inheritance Disputes: A Legal Pluralism Approach in Multicultural Societies

Abstract

Inheritance disputes in Indonesia's multicultural society face complex challenges due to the coexistence of three legal systems: Islamic law, customary law (Adat), and Western civil law. The dominance of rigid litigation approaches often fails to provide substantive justice and instead triggers prolonged family disharmony. This study aims to construct an Adaptive Resolution model as an alternative dispute resolution mechanism that bridges this legal plurality. The research method used is normative-juridical with a conceptual and socio-legal approach. The findings indicate that the lack of synchronization in national regulations demands a more flexible resolution mechanism. The Adaptive Resolution model offers a hybrid approach that prioritizes consensus (musyawarah) as the primary law, where inheritance distribution is not solely based on mathematical calculations of legal texts, but on the principles of willingness (ridha) and social balance. This model integrates local wisdom values (living law) into dispute resolution to create a win-win solution. This study recommends the need to strengthen the legal legitimacy of non-litigation agreements to possess executorial power equivalent to court decisions