The Potential in Expanding the Authority of Religious Court in Settling the Lowest Level of Domestic Battery Cases between Married Couple

Abstract

This article discusses about the pontential in expanding the authority of Religious Court in settling the lowest level of domestic battery cases between married couple. This issue is remarkable in a sense that as far as it concerned, the settlement of domestic battery cases in Indonesia is the authority of District Court. According to the regulation in Article 49, Constitution Number 3 year 2006 about the ammendement of Constitution Number 7 year 1989 about Religious Court, stating that the authority is merely limited to marriage affairs (including about divorce), inheritance, will, hibah, wakaf, zakah,infaq, shadaqah, and Sharia economy. Meanwhile, domestic abuse cases are known to be the prominent factor of divorce in Indonesia. Therefore, it is such an unfortunate when Religious Courts are responsible for to judge the final result but not with the process (background of the problem). This study is being discussed based on several theories, those are the theory of National Law of Pancasila, theory of authority, objective theory of law and theory of Maslahah Mursalah (Hifzun Nasl). Finally, it can be concluded that, ideally, Religious Court shall possess the authority to conduct a court on domestic battery case since it is the reason why divorce usually happen. It is basically peculiar when religious court only able to decide the divorce statement of a marriage couple without considering the background of the divorce (domestic battery).

Keywords: Low level of domestic battery