Personalising Divorce Mediation

Integrating the STIFIn Personality Model into Court-Annexed Mediation in Religious Courts

Abstract

This study argues that the persistent low success rate of divorce mediation in Indonesian Religious Courts reflects not merely a procedural failure of Supreme Court Regulation (PERMA) No. 1 of 2016, but a deeper substantive gap: the absence of adaptive communicative competence in mediator certification standards. Drawing on normative legal research supplemented by direct field observation at the Batam Religious Court, this article advances two analytical propositions. First, that PERMA No. 1/2016 operationalizes a court-annexed mediation model whose effectiveness is structurally contingent upon mediator competence beyond what the current certification regime (Article 13) requires. Second, that STIFIn Theory   a cognitive-typological framework mapping five dominant intelligence machines (Sensing, Thinking, Intuiting, Feeling, Instinct)   can serve as a supplementary communicative instrument enabling mediators to identify parties' hidden interests and adapt negotiation strategies accordingly. The article systematically compares STIFIn with MBTI and interest-based negotiation (Fisher & Ury), demonstrating that STIFIn's genetic-cognitive basis offers distinct operationalization potential while acknowledging its methodological limitations. The findings recommend amending mediator certification curricula under PERMA or a new Supreme Court Circular to incorporate typology-adaptive communication training as a substantive competence standard.