Tenun Sasak in Indonesian Legal Discourse: From Cultural Heritage to Local Economic Booster

The Tenun Sasak, an Indonesian traditional woven fabric, requires proper legal protection to prevent and to solve various violations of laws. Currently, there is no single sui-generis law on the subject matter as it sporadically regulated in several laws. This article examines issues related to the perspective of Sasak community toward Tenun Sasak, existing regulation on economic and cultural aspects of Tenun Sasak in Indonesian legal discourse, and the expected legal protection form to preserve its economic and cultural values. To address these issues, the study applied socio-legal research methodology by combining primary legal material, literatures, and secondary legal material to gain clearer de jure and de facto perspective. For Sasak community, the traditional woven fabric is not only body cover. It contains more depth values such as inter-generation cultural inheritance, reflection of socio-cultural values, and source of livelihood. In Indonesian legal discourse, Tenun Sasak is regulated in certain laws and regulations ranging from Intellectual property (IP) and others. The expected forms of laws to protect the economic and cultural values consist of establishment of database, sui generis law, and local law on the subject matter. It can be concluded that to protect and preserve the economic and cultural dimension of the subject matter, a holistic legal arrangement is required both inside and outside the IP system.