Legal Dialectics: Age Limits for Marriage and Political Rights in Indonesia

Abstract

Introduction : This study aimed to examine the legal dialectic over the age limit for marriage and political rights in Indonesia. It was promoted by a new marriage regulation stipulating the minimum age of nineteen years for men and women. This regulation correlates with the rules containing the minimum age limit, necessitating a further discussion. Objective: Previous studies on the minimum age limit did not focus on the law dialectic. Methodology: There are contradictions between the normative method of law and the idea of legal dialectics. The conclusions were drawn inductively. Findings: There are inequalities in several laws and regulations over the minimum age. The legal products, including a minimum age, are specific to certain laws and actions. The marriage dispensation has broken through higher laws, significantly impacting political rights. Therefore, positive law that ideally becomes a thesis turns into an antithesis due to the dispensation. The minimum marriage age of nineteen years for men and women is a synthesis and a new thesis, while those under eighteen are considered children (Law No. 35 of 2014 concerning Amendments to Law No. 23 of 2002 concerning Child Protection). This is the impact of feminism development in Indonesia (Mustika, 2016). In politics, the minimum limit aims to select seventeen years or those married (Law No. 7 of 2017 concerning General Elections). Differences in the minimum limit, marriage, children, and different political rights place age as a thesis. Additionally, marriage, children, and political rights are a synthesis. The exceptions to the marriage dispensation create automatic maturity for those non-compliant with the adult requirements set by Indonesian law, except in criminal cases. The marriage dispensation places those married as workers with equal rights and obligations as adults, as stipulated in the labor law. In administrative law, people could apply for citizenship because they are considered mature by the marriage dispensation. This is similar to Law No. 7 of 2017, where a marriage dispensation allows people to become adults beyond the age limit regulated in the election laws. law rules.