Research project
Building Blocks for the Rule of Law
Legal education initiative of the Leiden University, the University of Groningen and Universitas Indonesia.
- Duration
- 2009 - 2012
- Contact
- Jan Michiel Otto
- Funding
- Netherlands Enterprise Agency
The Building Blocks for the Rule of Law project was an initiative of Leiden University, the University of Groningen and Universitas Indonesia. It was launched in January 2009 and concluded in September 2012. The aim of the project was to contribute to the improvement and quality of the Indonesian legal and socio-legal education system by strengthening the teaching and research capacity of Indonesian law faculties. The project’s long-term goals were: to strengthen the rule of law in Indonesia; to help Indonesia establish good governance and to promote economic development and social justice.
At the outset of the project a detailed training plan was drawn up for a series of thirteen thematic courses to be held between January 2010 and July 2011 at various locations throughout Indonesia. These courses were to be conducted by professors and lecturers from the law schools of Leiden, Groningen and Utrecht University, in collaboration with Indonesian law faculty lecturers.
The aim of the courses was to teach relevant legal concepts, introduce new didactic methods and encourage the application of different teaching methods, such as presentations, discussions and assignments.
The courses were held in the following fields of law:
• Civil Law
• Labour Law
• Criminal Law
• Socio-legal Studies
Eighty promising Indonesian law lecturers were selected on the basis of their applications to take part in the above mentioned courses. Participants came from a wide variety of institutions from all corners of Indonesia.
As a direct result of the project a new Indonesian text book series entitled ‘Building Blocks for the Rule of Law’ has been created. This series is intended to be used as a teaching tool at Indonesian law faculties. The series combines important contributions from Dutch and Indonesian course lecturers as well valuable input from participants.
Copies of these new text books have been distributed to universities, legal institutions and NGOs throughout the whole of Indonesia.