This year's Bosscha Medal - a tribute by Leiden-Delft-Erasmus Universities to an Indonesian scholar - was awarded to legal anthropologist Professor Sulistyowati Irianto, professor at Fakultas Hukum Universitas Indonesia. With her academic excellence, she is making an important contribution to social justice and strengthening the rule of law in Indonesia.
Professor Sulistyowati Irianto has flourished the field of studies of gender and law, perpetuated and expanded the position of legal anthropology at Universitas Indonesia and thus played a major role in the development of the field nationally.
She has not only conducted important pioneering research herself (e.g. on migration and inheritance law and violence against women), but is also the mentor of a new generation of socio-legal scholars in Indonesia. Furthermore, she is also a tireless advocate of academic freedom and scientific integrity.
Her research on migration and inheritance law is unique.'
Professor Adriaan Bedner of Leiden University's Van Vollenhoven Institute said: ‘In the field of gender and law studies, Professor Irianto has shown the importance of empirical research in relation to legal rules: many well-intentioned measures do not work out as intended and sometimes worsen rather than improve the position of women.’
'Her research on migration and inheritance law is unique in its focus on the effect of customary law in family law relationships in situations where the parties involved have migrated and no longer live together in one place. Furthermore, Professor Irianto has succeeded in making lawyers more aware of legal pluralism in Indonesia and how it takes shape in practice.'
Wim van den Doel, Dean of Leiden-Delft-Erasmus: ‘Universities are keen to achieve social impact. Professor Irianto is a textbook example of how to achieve this with scientific research. An extra reason to celebrate that she receives this year's Bosscha Medal'.
Professor Irianto has opened the windows of Indonesian law faculties to the world.'
Professor Irianto represents an innovative, interdisciplinary approach that is increasingly accepted as a fruitful study of law. Not only because it provides useful information about how the legal system works, but also because it is important for the legal study of law. For example, when lawyers have to interpret concepts such as ‘best interests of the child’.
Bedner: ‘International recognition for Professor Irianto's work is also evident from the large number of collaborative projects with Dutch, Australian and American partners. In doing so, she has helped open the windows of Indonesian law faculties to the world.'
About the Bosscha Medal
The Leiden-Delft-Erasmus Universities alliance honours scientists and scholars who have made an outstanding contribution to the international cooperation in research and education between The Netherlands and the Global South, by awarding them the Bosscha medal.
The medal was originally established to commemorate Karel Bosscha (1865-1928), a Dutch engineer with a degree from TU Delft who made an outstanding contribution to the development of science and education in Indonesia. During his life on Java, he developed the Malabar Tea Plantation south of Bandung, not only economically but also socially.
Many of the initiatives of Bosscha had an impact in West Java and even beyond. Most important were his contributions to the founding of Institut Teknologi Bandung, the Bandung’s Cancer Center, the Gedung Merdeka and the Lembang Observatory (now Bosscha Observatory), to better understand the wider environment we are all living in.
