Jimly.com – Karlsruhe (Jerman), before ending his term of office, Indonesian Constitutional Justice, Jimly Asshiddiqie (JA), facilitated by Hans Seidel Foundation conducted a Courtesy Call to German Constitutional Court to improve the cooperation between the two Constitutional Courts, Wednesday (13/11). 
 
Directly welcomed by Prof. Dr. Dres. H.c. Hans-Jürgen Papier (Chief) and Prof. Dr. h.c. Siegfried Bross (Second Chamber Vice Chief), JA expressed his gratitude on the relationship and support given by the German compatriot on the capacity building of Indonesian Constitutional Court.
 
Tracking back the history of the establishment of Indonesian Constitutional Court, German Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht) was often used as the main reference for comparative studies, both in the forming part and the five years of Constitutional Court history. To improve the comparative studies, there were even constitutional justice exchanges between Indonesia-German in order to study and get more experience between one another. 
 
In the record, there were several German Constitutional Justices and former Justices visited Indonesia, Prof. Dr. Ernst Benda (Former Chief), Prof. Dr. Jutta Limbach (Former Chief), Prof. Dr. Dieter C. Umbach, and Prof. Dr. Siegfried Bross. Meanwhile, the visit of Prof. Dr. Jimly Asshiddiqie this time in the German Constitutional Court rounded up the visits of the first generation of Indonesian Constitutional Justices after Prof. Dr. Laica Marzuki, Prof. Dr. H.A.S. Natabaya and I Dewa Gede Palguna, S.H.
 
“Our visit, besides expressing our gratitude on the cooperation withheld, is aimed at improving further cooperation between Indonesian and German Constitutional Courts. Fortunately, I would be the promoter for Prof. Bross (German Constitutional Justice –ed.) to achieve the Dr. Honoris Causa from a university in Indonesia”, said Jimly whose speech was immediately interpreted into German Language with the help of Dr. Ulrich Klingshrin.
 
Gentlement Agreement
Jimly Asshiddiqie visit to German Constitutional Court was not for nothing. German Constitutional Court opened the opportunity for cooperation in case that Indonesian Constitutional Court was planning to have an internship or research program at their place.
 
"We are open to Indonesian people recommended by Indonesian Court to do an internship or research program for 1-3 months here," explained Prof. Hans-Jürgen Papier.
 
Apart from continuing Constitutional Justice visits program, including to give a lecture for students in Universities, Prof. Bross together with the Library of German Court also provided help in developing the library. The willingness to send the collection of books and the transfer of technology for the supporting device for digital library became one point of the agreements.
 
Another point was about the possibility for adopting digital archiving machine that could be used to store news related to the Constitutional Court from book pages, newspapers, and magazines within seconds. The device could also automatically record all words and terminologies written in the documents desired without having to insert the keywords one by one.
 
The library of Indonesian Constitutional Court with more than 5,000 titles of book collection and starting the digital library, would absolutely feel assisted with the realization of the books and supporting devices as possessed by the library in German Constitutional Court. Hence, JA was very enthusiastic in responding to the offer.
 
“Great! We will discuss this immediately; however, of course the digital archiving machine needs to be modified to suit the need of the Library in Indonesian Constitutional Court, especially regarding a set of system which have to be transferred to Indonesian Language,” remarked JA, one of the pioneers and the motivator of legal library in Indonesia.
 
To follow up the cooperation, it was scheduled to conduct further discussion between Indonesian Constitutional Justices and German Constitutional Justice, Prof. Siegfried Bross, in Jakarta at the end of November. (pmf)

Source: http://www.jimly.com/kegiatan/show/299

Photo: Doc. MK Public Relation

Translated by Yogi Djatnika / MK