This paper will address the development of Indonesian law in the post-independence era. In the following pages, this paper will demonstrate that changes in the country's political climate affected born the Islamic and adat (customary) courts,in spire of the inflexibility with which both legal traditions had weathered the political upheavals of the first half of the century. To this end, the place of both adat and religious courts in post-independence Indonesia will be analyzed in light of this political change. Two major avenues of investigation will be discussed. The first explains the debate between "pluralist" and "uniformist" groups regarding legal development in the young Republic of Indonesia, while the second discusses contentions between the so-called "secular nationalists" and "Muslims". The discussion provided in these sections is intended to provide a basis for understanding the legal controversies which unavoidably arose as a result of the shift from a colonial to a narional legal philosophy.Copyright (c) 2014 by SDI. All right reserved.DOI: 10.15408/sdi.v6i2.731