Papers by Petra Mahy
The Report presents a broad analysis of the law and policies of the Republic of Palau that have b... more The Report presents a broad analysis of the law and policies of the Republic of Palau that have bearing on issues of gender equality.
Policy & Internet, 2022
Indonesia boasts a lively influencer scene. These influencers promote various products and messag... more Indonesia boasts a lively influencer scene. These influencers promote various products and messages, including political messages, to their followers for commercial gain, and have been particularly active during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Influencers in Indonesia are potentially subject to state regulation, particularly via the controversial Electronic Transactions and Information Law (ITE Law) which criminalizes digital communications that “breach morality,” defame the good name of another, or spread misleading information resulting in consumer losses. In addition, influencers face a risk of community-led regulation, via an online backlash, should they transgress perceived moral boundaries. In this article, we present and analyze a series of case studies where influencer behavior has attracted regulatory responses. These cases illustrate the interactions among regulatory actors and also where and how the lines for acceptable influencer moral standards of behavior are being drawn.
Asian Journal of Comparative Law, 2022
Indonesia enacted a controversial 'Omnibus Law' on Job Creation in late 2020, and its implementin... more Indonesia enacted a controversial 'Omnibus Law' on Job Creation in late 2020, and its implementing regulations followed in February 2021. This Law, and particularly the labour cluster of amendments within it, has been linked to Indonesia's recent 'democratic decline' or 'illiberal turn'. Many of the amendments reduce worker protections with the aim of producing a more flexible labour market. While it is these obvious amendments in favour of employers' interests that have attracted the most attention, a deeper analysis of the changes introduced by this Law reveals additional important factors at play. There has been a significant repositioning of labour regulations within Indonesia's hierarchy of legal instruments, as well as important responses to Constitutional Court judicial review cases. Overall, this deeper legal analysis produces mixed evidence for democratic decline in Indonesia.
Labour, Equality and Human Rights (LEAH) Research Group, Working Paper no. 23, Monash University, 2021
On 5 October 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Indonesian National Legislature passed a ver... more On 5 October 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Indonesian National Legislature passed a very controversial ‘Omnibus Law’ on Job Creation. This legislation, with a massive 1187 pages, was then signed by President Joko Widodo and came into effect on 2 November 2020 and is now officially known as Law no. 11/2020 on Job Creation (Undang-Undang no. 11/2020 tentang Cipta Kerja).This Paper undertakes this task of piecing together the labour cluster of amendments in the Omnibus Law on Job Creation and aims to explain and analyse these changes in the context of the previous law.
Italian Labour Law E-Journal, 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic is having a devastating impact on employment and livelihoods in Indonesia. ... more The COVID-19 pandemic is having a devastating impact on employment and livelihoods in Indonesia. Understanding the implications for workers requires mapping the combined interactions of existing labour law protections, new regulations and social security measures. This all also needs to be understood in the context of national and regional government power-sharing, Indonesia’s large informal economy and the likely worsening of compliance with formal labour protections during the pandemic.
This article examines the potential use and limits of Zweigert and Kötz' classical functional app... more This article examines the potential use and limits of Zweigert and Kötz' classical functional approach in comparative law for an empirical socio-legal research project. The project involves a comparison of the formal labour laws and informal norms and institutions which regulate restaurant work in the cities of Melbourne, Australia, and Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The article argues that the functional approach is a necessary but incomplete method for overcoming the many issues of comparability between the two research sites; the method requires both extension of its analytical steps and explicit explanation of its limitations.
American Journal of Comparative Law, May 2013
This paper examines in detail the long historical evolution of the company form and company law i... more This paper examines in detail the long historical evolution of the company form and company law in Indonesia from the colonial period through to the present. The paper engages with existing research on the evolution of corporate law and explanations for the differences between patterns of legal innovation in origin and transplant countries. This research finds
some ‘legal origins’ effects in the ways that Indonesian company law has developed, but that patterns of change have been significantly different to that of its former coloniser, the Netherlands. Other mechanisms of continuity and change are observed including the impacts of ‘colonial legal history’ and of informal modes of business regulation.
Gendering the field: towards sustainable, Jan 1, 2011
Unpublished …, Jan 1, 2010
Co-Authored Peer Review Article by Petra Mahy
This paper traces the development of company law during the colonial era in British Malaya, provi... more This paper traces the development of company law during the colonial era in British Malaya, providing details on the laws of the Straits Settlements and the Federated Malay States. It also presents an account of economic development and the use of the limited liability company form in these two interlinked jurisdictions. The paper notes the lack of connection between the evolution of company law in Malaya, local economic and political developments and the actual local use of the law. We
situate this material within three current debates about the nature of colonial company law: whether the law was more a product of the “transplant effect” than of legal family; whether the dispersal of company law to the colonies was as straightforward as is often assumed; and whether the law was
best characterised as “imperialism”.
This article is concerned with a pervasive gender stereotype within Indonesian society, that of j... more This article is concerned with a pervasive gender stereotype within Indonesian society, that of janda, meaning both widows and divorcees. The term janda is no neutral signifier of marital status, but rather carries a bundle of pejorative meanings concerned with status and presumed sexual availability to men. It is bound up within assumptions about the normality of heterosexual marriage in Indonesia, and in many ways janda is the antithesis of the ideal of ibu, meaning a virtuous wife and mother. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted by each of the three authors, the article examines the reproduction and effects of this stereotype in three Indonesian communities; a village in East Java, a mining town in East Kalimantan and among Indonesian expatriates in Perth, Australia. Using this multi-sited and multi-positioned material we reflect on the everyday lived experience of being a janda, in particular how the stereotype affects social status, livelihood opportunities and modes of representing oneself within a particular community.
Refereed Journal Articles by Petra Mahy
Past Issues by Petra Mahy
Contents of _Indonesia and the Malay World_, volume 44, number 128 from March 2016 -- a special i... more Contents of _Indonesia and the Malay World_, volume 44, number 128 from March 2016 -- a special issue on the stigmatisation of widows and divorcees (janda) in Indonesian Society
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Papers by Petra Mahy
some ‘legal origins’ effects in the ways that Indonesian company law has developed, but that patterns of change have been significantly different to that of its former coloniser, the Netherlands. Other mechanisms of continuity and change are observed including the impacts of ‘colonial legal history’ and of informal modes of business regulation.
Co-Authored Peer Review Article by Petra Mahy
situate this material within three current debates about the nature of colonial company law: whether the law was more a product of the “transplant effect” than of legal family; whether the dispersal of company law to the colonies was as straightforward as is often assumed; and whether the law was
best characterised as “imperialism”.
Refereed Journal Articles by Petra Mahy
Past Issues by Petra Mahy
some ‘legal origins’ effects in the ways that Indonesian company law has developed, but that patterns of change have been significantly different to that of its former coloniser, the Netherlands. Other mechanisms of continuity and change are observed including the impacts of ‘colonial legal history’ and of informal modes of business regulation.
situate this material within three current debates about the nature of colonial company law: whether the law was more a product of the “transplant effect” than of legal family; whether the dispersal of company law to the colonies was as straightforward as is often assumed; and whether the law was
best characterised as “imperialism”.
Next week, Indonesia celebrates Hari Ibu, or Mother’s Day, to honour the 1928 Indonesian Women’s Congress, which heralded women’s involvement in the anti-colonial independence movement.
Public events, often led by the wives of high-ranking government officials, commemorate Hari Ibu. Messages abound about women’s plight, but also their strengths and their roles in the nation.
Hari Ibu draws on the image of ibu, as virtuous wife and mother, but this is not the only stereotype of femininity in Indonesia.
Janda is an Indonesian term covering both widows and divorcees. No longer being in a heterosexual marriage and not having a male spouse, janda have lost the respected status of ibu and are considered available to other men. In other words, janda represents the antithesis of the ideal of ibu.
Our research and other studies on the stigmatisation of widows and divorcees find that the janda stereotype pervades the lives of Indonesian women. It often results in them living precarious lives marginalised in their communities.
Indonesian language version: https://theconversation.com/di-bawah-bayang-bayang-ibu-stigma-rasa-malu-dan-kesempatan-sebagai-janda-129006