The Constitutional Court does not abolish the applicability of laws, but rather declares that a law or the materials of a sub-article and article and/or part of a law as no longer having binding legal effect.

 The abovementioned statement was conveyed by Prof. Dr. H.M. Laica Marzuki, S.H., the Deputy Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court in his keynote speech in the colloquium of “The Constitutional Court in the State Administration System of the Republic of Indonesia” which was held by the Secretariat General and the Registrar’s Office of the Constitutional Court with the Widyagama University, Malang on Saturday (16/6) in Malang City. As a correction to the current misunderstanding, Laica explained that the Constitutional Court cannot change the wording of a paragraph, an article and/or part of a law.

In the colloquium which was attended by high ranking officials, the public, and academicians of Greater Malang, Laica also explained that the authorities given to the Constitutional Court are to hold the constitutional judicial review of a law, to hold the judicial review deciding whether the concerning law is in accordance with or contradictory to (tegengesteld) the Constitution. “When the Constitutional Court considers that a law is contradictory to the Constitution, the law has no binding legal effect,” he said.

In relation to the Constitutional Court’s Decisions granting the petitions filed by Petitioners, Laica stated that the decisions must be published in the State Gazette, at the latest 30 (thirty) working days since the pronouncement of the decisions. “The law subjected to judicial review is still applicable prior to the decision stating that it is contradictory to the 1945 Constitution,” he explained. (Luthfi Widagdo Eddyono)