The Importance of Revising Policy of Minimum Age of Marriage: A Philosophical, Sociological and Juridical Argumentation

Faculty of Law and Syari’a, Islamic State University of Walisongo, Semarang, Indonesia

^* Corresponding email: siti_rofiah@walisongo.ac.id

Abstract

The policy of minimum age for marriage is set out in Act No. 1 of 1974 On Marriage, which is 19 years for men and 16 years for women. According to Act No. 35 of 2014 On Child Protection, the age of 16 is still a child. Therefore, the policy of minimum age for marriage is open up the potential for child marriage. Various previous researches indicate that child marriages has the potential to cause negative impacts for both the child itself and the social life widely. Accordingly, revising the policy of minimum age for marriage is very important. This study uses the socio legal method where the law is not only conceptualized as a set of rules, but also as a behavior. In this method, legal validity is not only determined by norms, but also from the facts that grow and develop in society. The results showed that revising of minimum age for marriage has a philosophical, sociological and juridical basis. Child marriage has an impact on social life because it can lead to a cycle of sustainable poverty, increased illiteracy, poor health to future generations, and robbing of wider community productivity both in the short term and long term.