Colonial Law and Racism: Revealing the Hierarchy of Justice in the Colonial Period in Indonesian History

This study examines how colonial law institutionalized racial hierarchy and structured unequal access to justice in the Dutch East Indies. Employing a qualitative legal-historical approach integrated with Critical Race Theory (CRT), the research analyzes colonial legal instruments, judicial arrangements, and historical scholarship to investigate the relationship between racial classification, legal pluralism, and institutional inequality. The analysis focuses on the Regeringsreglement (RR), Indische Staatsregeling (ISR), Burgerlijk Wetboek (BW), Herzien Inlandsch Reglement (HIR), Wijkenstelsel, Passenstelsel, and Intergentiel Recht. The findings demonstrate that colonial racial classification established differentiated legal statuses that shaped applicable law, judicial jurisdiction, procedural arrangements, and administrative regulation. These mechanisms operated as an interconnected institutional system through which racial hierarchy was legally organized and reproduced. Spatial restrictions further regulated residence and mobility, while inter-group law accommodated relationships across legally differentiated populations without dismantling the broader colonial hierarchy. The study also identifies normative and institutional continuities after Indonesian independence, while recognizing that inherited legal structures underwent significant constitutional and institutional transformations. By integrating legal-historical analysis with CRT, this article conceptualizes the colonial hierarchy of justice as an institutional architecture connecting racial classification, procedural differentiation, spatial governance, and inter-group legal relations. It contributes to scholarship on colonial legal pluralism by demonstrating how the recognition of legal diversity could coexist with unequal institutional authority, while highlighting the historical complexities and continuing challenges of legal decolonization in Indonesia.