Constitutional Court Legalizes Post-Nuptial Agreements but Upholds Discriminatory Provisions of Agrarian Law

In a landmark decision (the "Decision") handed down recently by the full bench of nine justices of the Constitutional Court, the Court amended certain provisions of the Marriage Law so as to recognize the validity of post-nuptial agreements for the first time in Indonesia, while simultaneously upholding a number of provisions of the Agrarian Law that abrogate the rights of Indonesian citizens in transnational marriages to hold Hak Milik (the Indonesian equivalent of freehold) and other real property rights that are prohibited to non-Indonesians. The unanimous Decision, which was handed down on 27 October 2016, may be regarded as something of a double-edged sword: While it has been warmly welcomed by those in transnational marriages, the Court's views on property rights for non-Indonesians will be seen as retrograde in some quarters.