Wardatun Nabilah, Rido Putra, Fakhriyah Annisa Afroo, Nurjanah Nurjanah, Etri Wahyuni
Child marriage is still an ongoing systemic problem in Indonesia, reflected in the high number of marriage dispensation applications in the Religious Courts each year. Although various studies have addressed this issue from the perspective of legal reform, procedural law, and Islamic legal theories such as maqāṣid al-sharī'ah and sadd al-dharī'ah, not many studies have highlighted the issue of justice within the framework of fiqh siyasah. This article aims to examine whether the regulation of marriage dispensation in Indonesia has reflected substantive justice for children, using a normative-critical approach through an analysis of three main legal instruments: Law No. 16/2019 on Marriage, Supreme Court Regulation No. 5/2019, and Child Protection Law No. 35/2014. Basing the analysis on the principles of fiqh siyasah-such as benefit, prevention of harm, and justice in legal governance-the study found a fundamental contradiction between the ideal of child protection and a legal structure that is permissive of the practice of child marriage. The administrative nature of the marriage dispensation mechanism and the lack of clear reasons tend to legitimize social and family failures rather than address them. This study recommends a reinterpretation of dispensation regulations within the ethical-political paradigm of Islamic law as well as systemic harmonization of family law regulations in Indonesia to ensure maximum protection for children. © 2025, Universitas Islam Negeri Mahmud Yunus Batusangkar. All rights reserved.
Universitas Islam Negeri Mahmud Yunus Batusangkar, Indonesia; Universitas Negeri Padang, Indonesia
