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Court researcher Andriani Wahyuningtyas Novitasari welcoming law students of Pancasila University, Monday (15/4). Photo by Humas MK/Panji.

JAKARTA, Public Relations of the Constitutional Court—Law students of Pancasila University asked questions when visiting the Constitutional Court, Monday (15/4/2019). One of the students asked about the selection process of new constitutional justices and how the justices maintain neutrality.

“Justices selection involves three state institutions, which is the realization of the checks and balances mechanism, through a selection committee. So, it is more neutral and guarantees fairness of the selected [candidates]. Hopefully the elected justices will become true statesmen,” said Court researcher Andriani Wahyuningtyas Novitasari, who welcomed the students.

“Actually, with independence, it is enough to say that constitutional justices are neutral from any interests. However, there is a main factor that Hans Kelsen said, that constitutional justices cannot be separated from morality as a controller of internal behavior,” she said.

Normatively, she added, constitutional justices selected by each institution must truly uphold the principles of independence and impartiality. In the Constitutional Court there is an Ethics Council that oversees the constitutional justices. "The Constitutional Court Ethics Council oversees the behavior of the constitutional justices according to the code of ethics and code of conduct. However, the Ethics Council does not oversee the substance of Court decisions," Andriani said. 

Another student posed a hypothetical question if the General Elections Commission (KPU) who has carried out the decision of the Constitutional Court, but the Supreme Court considered the KPU to have violated the law. 

"This is very interesting. The Constitutional Court has ruled that […] not implementing the decision of the Constitutional Court is […] illegal. If the Supreme Court declares so, that is fine, because it has no binding legal force and is implicit. Because the Constitutional Court\'s decision is the closest to the Constitution, as an institution that guarantees the supremacy of the Constitution," Andriani stressed. 

Andriani also explained constitutionalism, which is an idea regarding the boundary between branches of state power and protector of citizens\' constitutional rights. Furthermore, she revealed its conceptual and operational constitutional functions. Conceptually, the Pancasila as the foundation of the nation\'s philosophy, the constitutional presidential system as a structural foundation contained in the Constitution, and the national goals implemented in the nation\'s political policies. 

Whereas operationally, she continued, the things reflected in the constitutional function conceptually can be realized in real life in the nation and state and can be implemented by the superstructure, in this case the Government, as well as political parties, mass organizations, and the entire community. 

She then talked in length about the history of judicial review and Indonesia, including the history of the establishment of the Constitutional Court on August 13, 2003, pushed by the 1998 reforms and the amendments of the 1945 Constitution. She also explained the definition of a rule of law, as well as the features on the Constitutional Court website, which will help justice seekers who litigate at the Court.

Before ending the visit, Andriani reminded the students to participate in enforcing constitutional law, both as part of the academic community, socially as agents of change, and politically. “Students have moral, intellectual, and social responsibilities,” she asserted. (Nano Tresna Arfana/LA/Yuniar Widiastuti)

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