Adat Law

Adat is a term, drawn from Arabic, for the body of local customary practice and tradition that Muslim communities across the Balkans, the Caucasus, Central Asia, South Asia and Southeast Asia have treated as compatible with Islam and folded into their own systems of social order and dispute resolution. It remains formally recognized within state institutions in Malaysia and Brunei, where bodies such as Malaysia's state Majlis Agama Islam dan Adat Istiadat Melayu advise the ruler and regulate both Islamic religious affairs and adat custom together. In Indonesia, adat retains particular force among Hindu communities in Bali, in the Tengger highlands, and around Yogyakarta and Surakarta. After the Soviet Union's collapse, communities across Central Asia and the North Caucasus revived adat practices during the 1990s following decades of suppression under Soviet rule. Where adat survives formally, it typically operates as personal law for matters such as family and property, coexisting with national statutory law in a pattern of legal pluralism rather than replacing it.