Customary Law or State Law: The Settlement of Marine Resource Disputes in The Kei Islands Community

Abstract

The Kei Islands natives have applied a case settlement system, known as the customary judiciary, since the olden days. This is a forum in the Larvul Ngabal customary law system with a high authority that is widely obeyed and used in resolving disputes by the community. Through a field approach, this research aimed to explain the continued use of the settlement of natural resource disputes by a "customary judge" in the Kei Islands as a reference by the community. The findings revealed that customary settlement forums are still employed in resolving natural resource disputes because they provide a sense of justice. Customary settlements are aimed at punishing the perpetrators as well as diminishing the impact of the dispute on victims, their families, and the social environment. The research also discovered that the settlements utilized in the Kei Islands developed from the dated dichotomy to produce hybrid dispute resolution models.