Local Governance in Timor-Leste - Secretaria de Estado da Arte e ...

this distinction. When I asked about the different types of injuries and whether theywould be resolved via lisan or taken to the police (bruising, swelling, broken bones)the most common answer was "it depends."In both subdistricts, this distinction between 'big' and 'small' offences was generallydescribed as one that was mutually supportive of the principles of both lisan andmodern law. From the perspective of traditional authorities, the special place of lisanas the first point of call was respected. And from the perspective of the police, thisprocess could be explained in terms of their jurisdiction over criminal matters asopposed to civil matters, which were to be resolved via lisan. It was also seen ashaving the advantage of consistency, where this general distinction was held to applyacross all violent acts within the subdistrict.However, this act of negotiation through the everyday politics of mutual recognitionappears to have flipped modern jurisprudential understandings on their head, where ineffect offences are considered criminal because they are taken to the police, or civilbecause they are resolved via lisan—as opposed to the principles of modern lawwhere an act is considered criminal based on the seriousness of the offence and theintent of the perpetrator. This carries with it important jurisprudential issues for thegovernment of Timor-Leste. As discussed in chapter five of this thesis, lisan isheavily gendered and women are rarely given the right to actively participate in nahebiti boot discussions. The lack of voice for female victims of domestic violencemeans that, in practice, the choice of whether the offence is 'big enough' and shouldgo to the police is often made by others—perhaps the family, or other authorityfigures within the suku. The lack of voice for women, together with the tendency Iobserved for sometimes quite serious cases of domestic violence to be taken totraditional authority figures for resolution, appears to have in effect created a thirdcategory of offence specifically for domestic violence cases. This was the case in bothsubdistricts where domestic violence was viewed as different in quality to otherviolence, and alternately referred to in Fatulia as "violensia sivil" 42 , and in Ainaro asviolence that is "perdata" 43 . This general understanding of domestic violence as42 Violensia sivil: Tetun for civil violence43 Perdata: Bahasa Indonesia for civil law154