Esmi Warassih Pujirahayu (Professor of Law Sociology Science of Diponegoro University) as the resource person in a Focus Group Discussion held by Study and Research Center of the Constitutional Court at 11th Floor of the Constitutional Court Building, Thursday (31/3).
Jakarta, MKOnline - when studying about the regional election cases in the Constitutional Court (The Court), it could not just make analyses of the cases but also to seek the truth. That was stated by a Professor of Law Sociology of the Diponegoro University, Esmi Warassih Pujirahayu as a resource person in a Focus Group Discussion (FGD) held by the Study and Research Center of The Court, Thursday (31/3) at The Court’s Building.
“Seen from The Court’s institution, the study conducted is more than just a case research but also a case study. Something which is considered right could not be generalized; only absolute truth can be generalized. For example, the election in Jakarta and in Bandung cannot be made similar because the problems are different, the matters of the problems are different, in fact the causing factors are also different; even though the name is the same, regional election. They are still different. Here we can see that law is a symbol,” she explained.
According to Esmi, law is a symbol. For justices or employees of a judicial institution, if they wanted to conduct a research, then it would be more appropriate to use the hermeneutic method. “Hermeneutic here is more to a text. Hermeneutic is a way to find the internal meaning of a text without going out of the context, whether historical, grammatical, until the spiritual one. Then this is what is called to be seen from the philosophical, norms and sociological sides. For example, the election in North Sumatra with different regencies, then the lawsuit would be different. What we have to pay attention to the incoming cases are that they should not be seen textually but also contextually,” she described.
Through hermeneutics, continued Esmi, we had to elaborate the hidden meaning inside a case. According to her, that would be the same with reading the law passed on by the legislatives. “The hidden meaning behind the law has to be read, because the hidden meaning in law is called legal norms. A text does not always show its legal norms; sometimes they are not clear. So, to do a research, we have to dive into its history, grammar until the philosophical aspect or the values. So, actually law is full with values,” he pointed out.
According to Esmi, the frequent cases were legislative products which often raised conflicts. So, continued Esmi, a research had to see in the value level. “Hermeneutic is a new way to understand the language without going away from the context. So, to explain a legal document has to catch its soul. We cannot separate the understanding of the text with the legal products which brings the text.” She explained.
Esmi described that a Reseach and Development should be examining legislative products before becoming a subject for judicial review. “So, hermeneutics is to study a text into the deepest meaning. Here, it is a language problem. Law is a language. I see hermeneutics as a philosophy because what will be observed is legal documents.” She concluded. (Lulu Anjarsari/mh/YDJ)
Thursday, March 31, 2011 | 20:27 WIB 219