Borobudur Law and Society Journal

Indonesian civil law still rests on a colonial Civil Code, and reform discussions increasingly invoke a ‘paradigm shift’ toward restorative justice, a doctrine developed in criminal and juvenile justice. This article asks what has actually changed in Indonesian civil law, whether the Draft Civil Code Bill can be said to adopt restorative justice, and how restorative principles could enter civil dispute resolution without weakening legal certainty. It is normative legal research using statutory and conceptual approaches to the Civil Code, the legislation on mediation, arbitration, electronic transactions, personal data, marriage and agrarian law, and the recent restorative justice instruments in criminal law, read with the literature on restorative justice. The findings are that the real shifts lie in access to justice, court-annexed mediation, electronic transactions and the recognition of customary communities, that the Civil Code is form-neutral so that electronic contracts expose a gap in proof and harmonisation rather than in validity, and that no analysed text of the Draft Civil Code adopts restorative justice, so the claim remains a proposal. Restorative principles fit family, inheritance and neighbour disputes through mediation, but not where power is unequal. The article recommends a bounded restorative clause, protective safeguards and enforceable public participation.