Journal of Law and Digital Civilization

Direct-to-Consumer DNA Testing and Nasab in Indonesia: Genetic Privacy and Evidence in Comparative Perspective

2026-10-13T13:28:11+00:00

Direct-to-consumer (DTC) DNA testing allows individuals to obtain parentage information through online platforms, outside clinical, forensic, and judicial control. When such reports enter Indonesian Religious Court proceedings, three legal regimes intersect: personal data protection, civil and electronic evidence, and the Islamic law of lineage (nasab). This article examines how Indonesian law governs genetic data generated by DTC services, under what conditions a commercial DNA report may be admitted and weighed in parentage disputes, and how genetic privacy can be reconciled with the protection of lineage and children’s interests. Using statutory, conceptual, and comparative approaches, the study analyses Indonesia’s Personal Data Protection Law, electronic evidence and civil procedure rules, Constitutional Court Decision Number 46/PUU-VIII/2010, the Compilation of Islamic Law, and fatwas on DNA evidence, and compares them with Jordan’s Personal Data Protection Law of 2023 and Personal Status Law of 2019. The findings show that Indonesia protects genetic and children’s data and recognises scientific evidence, but lacks an operational pathway for moving a privately generated report into judicial assessment. Its evidentiary weight depends on specimen identity, chain of custody, scientific interpretation, and document integrity, while biological relatedness does not automatically establish nasab. Jordan’s codification of court-controlled “definitive scientific means” offers a useful model. The article proposes a Four-Layer Genetic Data Governance Framework linking lawful processing, evidentiary reliability, maqāṣid-based assessment of lineage, and digital accountability.

Digital Registration and the Invisible Child: Protecting Children of Unregistered Migrant Marriages in Malaysia

2026-10-14T05:01:34+00:00

The digitalisation of civil registration promises legal identity for all, yet children who never enter the database remain invisible to the state. This article examines that paradox through children born of unregistered (siri) marriages among undocumented Indonesian migrant workers in Kampung Bharu, Kuala Lumpur. It asks how such marriages are practised, how Indonesian and Malaysian law treat the children, and how accessible digital and consular protection of their rights to identity, nationality, education, and health actually is. Using empirical juridical research with statutory, conceptual, and case approaches, the study draws on interviews and observation at a community learning centre and an interview with a consular officer of the Indonesian Embassy, analysed qualitatively against Islamic law, Indonesian and Malaysian legislation, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Two children at the centre were reported to have been born of religiously solemnised but unregistered marriages between undocumented Indonesian parents. They remain Indonesian nationals by descent and are undocumented rather than stateless. Indonesia offers free consular birth registration and an online civil registration system for citizens abroad, but these channels are underused because registration requires data that families lack, because parents fear their data will reach immigration enforcement, and because of a digital divide in legal information. The article argues that digital registration protects children only when paired with a data firewall between civil registration and immigration enforcement, outreach that reaches offline communities, and evidentiary flexibility for children of unregistered marriages.

Beyond Recommendations: Data-Driven Regional Legislative Oversight against Corruption in Indonesia

2026-10-16T07:47:17+00:00

Decentralization has made Indonesian regional governments a major arena of corruption, yet the oversight function of regional legislatures (DPRD) remains weak and largely untested in a digitalised budget cycle. This article asks how DPRD oversight is regulated under Law Number 23 of 2014, where its preventive force against corruption, collusion, and nepotism (KKN) is lost, how digital government data affect it, and how it can be strengthened. Drawing on a critical case study of West Bandung Regency, where two successive regents were convicted of corruption and the 2024 integrity score remained “vulnerable,” the study combines doctrinal analysis with purposive semi-structured interviews with members of two DPRD commissions, triangulated with court reports, statutory follow-up norms, and public integrity data. The findings show a clear legal mandate and a largely preventive practice—budget scrutiny, field verification, and monitoring of Audit Board follow-up—but reveal a post-recommendation gap: DPRD recommendations carry no response duty, and inconsistent records in electronic planning systems prevent legislators from verifying where funds go. The article proposes a data-driven follow-up accountability model that requires a time-bound executive response to recommendations, modelled on existing audit and Ombudsman follow-up duties, and gives legislative commissions structured access to government data. The model strengthens regional legislative oversight in the digital era without granting executory powers and is transferable to other Indonesian regions governed by the same law.

Governing Beneficiary Data: Constitutional Responsibility and Populism in Indonesia’s Free Nutritious Meal Program

2026-10-17T15:54:50+00:00

Indonesia’s Free Nutritious Meal Program (Makan Bergizi Gratis, MBG), one of the world’s largest school-meal schemes, depends on beneficiary data held by several ministries and disclosed through online portals. This article argues that the governance of these data determines whether the state’s constitutional responsibility under Articles 28H and 34 of the 1945 Constitution is fulfilled or slides into constitutional populism. Using normative legal research with statute, conceptual, and case approaches, complemented by socio-legal document analysis, the study traces the beneficiary data lifecycle of collection, targeting, disclosure, and evaluation and assesses it against Indonesia’s data and constitutional framework. It finds that beneficiary data remain fragmented because the program regulation refers to One Data Indonesia only in general terms and specifies neither reference data nor matching with the Single National Socio-Economic Data, weakening priority for the most vulnerable; that public disclosure tools process children’s data without the safeguards required by the Personal Data Protection Law; and that evaluation counts meals rather than rights outcomes. These weaknesses are compounded by a legal basis limited to presidential instruments and by financing that Constitutional Court Decision No. 40/PUU-XXIV/2026 found incompatible with mandatory education spending beyond 2026. The article proposes the concept of data-driven constitutional responsibility and recommends a statute for MBG that regulates beneficiary data, integration with national single-data systems, data protection impact assessments, and public outcome dashboards.

Proportionality by Design: Digital Governance of Street Vending in Indonesian Cities

2026-10-18T01:16:22+00:00

Across the Global South, cities are digitalising urban governance while millions of people continue to earn their living by vending in public space. This creates a recurring legal tension between the right to work and the public interest in orderly streets, which local governments often resolve through episodic clearance. This article asks whether digital governance instruments can make the regulation of street vending more lawful and proportionate. Using normative legal research with statutory, conceptual, and comparative approaches, it examines the Indonesian framework through a case study of Pekanbaru City Regional Regulation Number 13 of 2021 on Public Order and Public Tranquility and compares it with India’s Street Vendors Act of 2014 and with Hungary’s public space regime under European Union digital law. The analysis finds that the Indonesian regime is formally valid but prohibition-centred: the designation of lawful vending space is discretionary, national empowerment obligations are not operationalised, and the securing of vendors’ goods rests only on a general power to secure evidence, without procedure, receipt, or time limits for return. These gaps make it difficult to verify the necessity and strict proportionality of enforcement. The article contributes the concept of proportionality by design, in which electronic registration, open geospatial zoning, electronically documented sanctions, digital objection channels, and digital empowerment translate the proportionality test into verifiable administrative practice, subject to personal data protection, anti-surveillance, and digital inclusion safeguards.