Constitutional Amendments in Muslim-Majority States: The Case of Indonesia and its Islamic Peers

Muslim-majority countries face unique challenges in managing constitutional change because of complex interaction between religion, politics, and law. Formal and informal constitutional amendments occur through legal procedures and judicial interpretation, political practice, and social norms, respectively. This study analyzes the dynamics of these amendments in Muslim-majority countries, focusing on Indonesia, Turkey, Egypt, and Pakistan. The research method used here adopts a normative juridical approach with a comparative approach. Reportedly, Indonesia stands out with a combination of formal amendments, such as the reform of the 1945 Constitution, and informal changes through the Constitutional Court, creating a stable and flexible legal system. In contrast, Egypt and Pakistan show that the pressure of political crises and the influence of the military often hinder the sustainability of formal reforms, although informal change remains an adaptation mechanism. These findings highlight the importance of the social and political context in shaping the path of constitutional change and indicate that informal change can serve as an adaptation tool without the need for legal text revision. The novelty of this study is its simultaneous focus on formal and informal amendments in the Muslim-majority countries, offering a contribution to the literature on global constitutionalism by explaining how informal mechanisms can complement formal reform.