BIANKA or Bincang Karya is a serial-webinar held by the Indonesian Embassy in Washington D.C., USA through the Attaché for Education and Culture lived from Washington DC., (09/01/2020).
A number of speakers were presented in this 5th series BIANKA with the theme, Comparative Law, one of which was Prof. Austin Parrish, Dean of Maurer School of Law, Indiana University. In his presentation, Prof. Parrish talked a lot about Indiana University, especially the Maurer School of Law. He started by introducing Msuji Miyakawa as a famous alumni. Furthermore, Prof. Parrish gave an overview of the LLM undergraduate program, a one-year master’s program that has been joined by many students from outside America. The program includes business commercial law, financial regulation, cyber security, and intellectual property comparative law.
Popy Rufaidah, the Education and Cultural Attaché, chaired this webinar. The recorded live event of BIANKA Seri-5 can be accessed in the following link http://bit.ly/fb-watch-bianka5
The next speaker was Dr. Daedra Staten, J.D, Assistant Director of Graduate Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Dr. Staten talked a lot about the LLM program at UCLA. Currently the University of California is ranked in the top 15 in the United States for law schools. Apart from excelling in the rankings, UCLA LLM also provides an interview program which is a job fair in New York. This activity is an opportunity for LLM students to present their best CV.
The webinar was continued by a presentation by Zezen Zaenal, a candidate for SJ. D, UCLA – School of Law. In his presentation entitled “Indonesia and the Formation of International Law”, Mr. Zaenal discussed a question about the relationship between legal practices in Indonesia and the formation of international law. He started his presentation with the St. Catharina Case which was the forerunner of colonialism in Indonesia and the formation of international legal norms. The outstanding character of the case, Hugo Grotius, who was a scholar from Leiden University, was told clearly by Mr. Zaenal.
The discussion continued with a presentation from Eka Nugraha Putra, an SJD candidate from Indiana University – Maurer School of Law, United States. His presentation topic was “Internet and Free Speech: Indonesia and the United States”. At the beginning of his presentation, Mr. Putra presented a data stating that Indonesia is in the score of 62 which means partly free or in the middle category in terms of free speech. This is different from the United States which has a value of 86 and is said to be free. In addition, he also gave an overview of the Defamation of Laws, especially online defamation in the two countries (Indonesia and America).
The webinar ended with a closing presentation from Dr. Eduart Wolok, Chancellor of the University of Gorontalo, representative of the Indonesian State University Chancellors Council. Dr. Wolok delivered a presentation entitled “The Role of State Universities in Increasing Research and Education Collaboration, especially in Comparative Law Research”. Dr. Wolok said universities need to be encouraged to find the right formula in regulating defamation in Indonesia by considering the character and culture of society. Comparative Law was also explained with reference from developed countries such as the United States and Australia.