Bio
Specialization: Constitutional Law and Legislative Drafting
I am a lecturer at the Department of Constitutional Law, Universitas Sriwijaya, since 1987. I have a multidisciplinary education background, namely law (Universitas Gadjah Mada, obtained the degrees of SmHk/BL in 1984 and SH/ML in 1986), anthropology (University of Kentucky, MA in 1993), natural resources and environment (University of Michigan, enrolled in a Ph.D. program in 1994–1996, discontinued) and doctoral of law (Universitas Indonesia, enrolled in 2007–2008, discontinued).
The main courses I teach are Indonesian Constitutional Law [and Political System] and Legislative Drafting. Both are challenging subjects since the Reformation occurred in Indonesia in the late 1990s and the Indonesian Constitution (i.e. UUD of 1945) was amended four times (from 1999 through 2002). Many [more] foreign concepts have been adopted, shifting Indonesia from an authoritarian regime to a [more] democratic nation-state.
Besides teaching, my research interests are fall within a study theme called, “the state-society relations” that observe how the state [in the capital] formulate centralized regulations and community’s responses in the field toward those regulations. Within this study theme, I have involved in several national and international initiatives, ranging from reviewing forest resources management to observing constitutional behavior of the primary state institutions in the post-Reformation era of Indonesia.
My involvement in the above activities resulted to some publications, among others are a chapter entitled, “Customary Forests and Conservation” in Conservation and Indigenous People (USAID, White Paper 3, 2017, ISBN 978-602-52664-1-6); “Population–Environment Dynamics in Lahat: A case Study of Deforestation in a Regency of South Sumatra Province, Indonesia” in Baudot & Moomaw (editors), People and Their Planet: Searching for Balance (MacMillan Press Ltd, London, 1999, ISBN: 0-333-6811-2 / St. Martin’s Press Inc, New York, 1999, ISBN: 0-312-2175-3); Hukum dan Pembangunan (Law and Development)—with Muladi, Yusril Ihza Mahendra and Kastorius Sinaga—, a training module for Members of DPRD (Regional Representatives) (Bandiklat Depdagri, Jakarta, 1997, ISBN 973-95412-4-7); “Protected Areas Deforestation in South Sumatra, Indonesia”—with Steven R. Brechin and Surya Chandra Surapaty—in Ness, Drake and Brechin (editors), Population–Environment Dynamics: Ideas and Observations (University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, 1993, ISBN: 0-472-10395-4); and I served as an editor of a textbook of Soewargo Kartodihardjo, Asas-Asas Hukum Tata Negara (The Principles of Constitutional Law) (Universitas Gadjah Mada Law School, Yogyakarta, 1983).
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