Evolution of the Corporate Form in Indonesia: An Exploration of Legal Innovation and Stagnation

Abstract

This paper examines in detail the long historical evolution of the company form and company law in Indonesia from the colonial period through to the present. The paper engages with existing research on the evolution of corporate law and explanations for the differences between patterns of legal innovation in origin and transplant countries. This research finds some ‘legal origins’ effects in the ways that Indonesian company law has developed, but that patterns of change have been significantly different to that of its former colonizer, the Netherlands. Other mechanisms of continuity and change are observed including the impacts of ‘colonial legal history’ and of informal modes of business regulation.

Keywords: corporations law, legal evolution, legal origins, Indonesia, transplants