Recalibrating Living Law in Digital Inheritance: Legal Pluralism Among Adat, Fiqh, and Platform Governance in the Osing Community

Abstract

The increasing integration of digital technologies into inheritance administration has generated new challenges for plural legal systems in which customary law and Islamic jurisprudence coexist. Despite growing scholarship on digital inheritance and legal pluralism, limited attention has been given to how adat, Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh), and platform governance simultaneously shape living law in digitally mediated inheritance practices. This study investigates how the Osing community of Banyuwangi recalibrates living law through the interaction of these normative orders in the administration of digital inheritance. Employing a qualitative legal-anthropological approach, data were generated through six months of ethnographic observation, twenty-five semi-structured interviews, and systematic document analysis. The findings demonstrate three interconnected processes. First, community members developed plural legal consciousness by recognizing adat, fiqh, and platform governance as complementary normative frameworks for inheritance administration. Second, digital inheritance practices were recalibrated through hybrid mechanisms integrating customary deliberation, Islamic inheritance principles (farāʾiḍ), and platform administrative procedures for managing digital assets, including digital wallets and cryptocurrencies. Third, living law evolved through intergenerational collaboration and pragmatic institutional adaptation, enabling communities to accommodate technological change while preserving customary legitimacy and religious authority. The study extends living law and legal pluralism scholarship by demonstrating that digital platforms function as institutional environments shaping the implementation of legal practice without displacing the normative authority of customary institutions or Islamic jurisprudence. These findings contribute to comparative socio-legal scholarship by providing an empirically grounded account of how indigenous and Muslim communities negotiate digital transformation within plural legal systems.