<![CDATA[Background: Marriage in Indonesia is a legal, religious, and cultural institution simultaneously regulated by national law, Islamic law, and Bugis–Makassar customary norms. Divergent interpretations among these systems create legal uncertainty for children born outside legally recognized marriages, often resulting in stigma and limited civil rights. Purpose: This study examines how the interaction of national law, Islamic law, and Bugis–Makassar customary law shapes the civil rights of out-of-wedlock children and assesses the influence of local cultural values on their legal recognition and protection. Methods: This research adopts a socio-legal and legal anthropological approach to analyze the normative tensions between adat, religion, and state law in determining the civil rights of children born out of wedlock in Bugis-Makassar society. The study examines legal texts and judicial decisions alongside the social practices, cultural values, and communal understandings that influence the recognition of children’s status and rights. By situating legal norms within their social context, the research highlights how individuals and communities navigate competing normative frameworks and negotiate legal legitimacy in everyday life. Results: The findings reveal that the civil rights of children born out of wedlock are shaped through ongoing negotiations between state law, Islamic norms, and Bugis-Makassar customary values. While national law provides formal legal recognition, the realization of these rights is often mediated by social legitimacy, customary mechanisms, and cultural notions of siri’ (honor) and lineage. Children and their families actively navigate these overlapping normative orders to mitigate stigma, secure social acceptance, and gain access to inheritance and family rights. The study highlights a gap between formal legal guarantees and lived social realities, demonstrating that legal recognition is not merely a juridical matter but also a process of negotiating identity and belonging within a plural legal and cultural landscape. Implication: The study highlights the necessity of ethical governance grounded in legal pluralism and transformative justice. Rather than privileging a single legal system, legal policies should facilitate constructive engagement among state law, Islamic law, and customary norms to ensure substantive justice, protect the dignity and rights of children born out of wedlock, and promote socially inclusive and culturally sensitive forms of legal recognition. Originality: This study integrates national law, Islamic law, and Bugis–Makassar customary law within a single framework, positioning customary law as an active living system that shapes children’s civil rights in a plural legal society ]]>
