Verjaring — prescription, or limitation of actions — did not occur in Atjehnese adatrecht, and was introduced into Atjeh by administrative act through the gubernatorial decision of 26 April 1911 No. 2199.
The gap in the adat
D. W. N. de Boer stated the position flatly: “Verjaring kwam in het Atjehsch adatrecht niet voor; doch werd dit instituut van bestuurswege ingevoerd” — prescription did not occur in Atjehnese customary law, but the institution was introduced by the administration.
The inconsistency it was meant to cure
The decree’s own recitals record the problem: the treatment of old claims of debt by the moesapat’s in the gewest (region) varied greatly, prescription being applied quite arbitrarily, sometimes yes and sometimes no; and in the interest of a good administration of justice it was desirable to bring unity into the matter.
Justifications advanced
The decree grounded the innovation on three further considerations: that Islam too, under certain reservations, recognised prescription; that even before the Netherlands establishment, in many districts under the adat, no right was done upon claims that the plaintiff had without valid reason omitted to institute for fifteen years; and that both the Atjehnese chiefs and the Mohammedan schriftgeleerden (scholars) perceived the desirability and necessity of regulating the matter.
The rule
All inheritance claims were to be prescribed after an uninterrupted lapse of fifteen or ten years, according as they were written (beschreven) or unwritten (onbeschreven).
Significance
The introduction of verjaring was the last innovation recorded in De Boer’s survey of Atjehnese land and property law, and stands as a compact example of the interaction of three legal orders in colonial Atjeh: customary adat, Islamic law, and Netherlands-Indies administrative regulation.
See Also
- Besluit van den Civielen en Militairen Gouverneur van Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden 26 April 1911 No. 2199
- Moesapat
- Adatrecht
- Ahli waris
- 1911
Source
Het recht op den grond in Atjeh, by D. W. N. de Boer, dated Scheveningen, November 1931, pp. 59-80. Offprint DLP-141, Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, ‘s-Gravenhage; Bibliotheek KITLV accession 0060 4460 60 081470 428.