The efforts of inheritance dispute resolution for customary land on indigenous peoples in Karo, North Sumatra, Indonesia

Pluralism of inheritance law in Indonesia proves that there has been no unification of inheritance law in Indonesia; instead, customary law on inheritance, Islamic law on inheritance and European Civil Code (ECC) law on inheritance have continued up until now. As land is one of the objects in the inheritance, it is highly likely that the conflict over customary lands, unless followed-up, would lead to disputes. Such conflict over the inheritance of customary lands is the leading factor of customary land disputes. The Karonese people living in the district of Karo have a variety of ways to resolve the inheritance disputes over their customary lands, such as through perumah begu, Runggun, and the district court. In common practice, Karonese people prefer to resolve their disputes based on the local customary law rather than to proceed the disputes to the district court.