Today, Indonesia’s legal system is based on Dutch Colonial Law, Adat Law and National Law.
After Indonesia gained independence in August 1945, it adopted the Dutch HIR as its code of criminal procedure. In 1981, Indonesia replaced HIR with the KUHAP. The KUHAP improved upon the HIR by adding adversarial features to the criminal procedure. However, the KUHAP does not sufficiently protect human rights and its safeguards are often ignored in practice because there are no penalties for failing to comply with the Act. In response to dissatisfaction with the formal procedures in the Act, a working group drafted a new statue to replace the KUHAP in 2000. However, Indonesia has not adopted the working group's recommendations to date.