The purpose of this paper is to explore the contributions of L.W.C. Van
Den Berg in Dutch colonial legal politics on the development of religious courts
through the theory of reception in complexu. The focus of this research are: what
are the contributions of Van Den Berg in the development of religious justice in
Indonesia? Why did the Dutch colonial government accept this idea? Was it to
protect the colonized people or protect their power? This type of research is a
library research by focusing on sources of information originating from legal
politics books, articles, journals and literature that are relevant and in sync with
the object of this research. The results show that Van Den Berg had contributed
to the development of religious courts in Indonesia through the receptie in
complexu theory which stated that the law that applies to Muslims is Islamic law.
This theory emerged after the Dutch colonial saw the reality of the application
of Islamic law to society. As an implementation of this theory, Islamic law
legislation was made known as the Compendium Freije. Religious courts were
given the authority to carry out their legal jurisdiction according to and based
on Islamic law. With this theory, the existence of the Netherlands could be
accepted by the people of the Nusantara
Keywords: Van Den Berg, Politics of law, Reception in complexu, religious court