Constitutional Justices I Dewa Gede Palguna and Saldi Isra welcoming the Head of the Cooperation Division for South Asia and Southeast Asia of HSF Stefan Burkhardt, Thursday (24/10). Photo by Humas MK/Gani.

JAKARTA, Public Relations of the Constitutional Court—The Hanns Seidel Foundation (HSF) visited the Constitutional Court (MK) on Thursday (24/10/2019). The Head of the Cooperation Division for South Asia and Southeast Asia of HSF Stefan Burkhardt was welcomed by Constitutional Justices I Dewa Gede Palguna and Saldi Isra.

Burkhardt stated that his visit was to introduce himself as Head of the Cooperation Division for South Asia and Southeast Asia to replace Daniel Heilmann. He also expressed his intention to discuss future cooperation between HSF and the Constitutional Court.

Constitutional Justice I Dewa Gede Palguna welcomed him and said that since its establishment, the Constitutional Court has been close with HSF. According to him, the Constitutional Court of Indonesia has received a lot of influence from the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany. One interesting example, he revealed, is the constitutional complaint in the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany. This authority, he added, does not exist within the Constitutional Court of Indonesia. "This is what I discussed in my dissertation," Justice Palguna explained.

Constitutional Justice Saldi Isra hoped that there would be academic breakthroughs through research on constitutional complaint, because many petitions that were filed to the Constitutional Court of Indonesia were constitutional complaints. He also expressed his hope that the visit would strengthen relations between the Constitutional Court of Indonesia and HSF, such as in research and human resources improvement. 

Burkhardt also asked about the challenges that the Constitutional Court of Indonesia face, to which Justice Palguna said that although the Constitutional Court of Indonesia is authorized to review laws, there are challenges in relation to concrete cases “where the authorities interpret a law erroneously.”

In the end, Justice Palguna added, constitutional justices are required to make innovations in deciding on cases. "So, the problem here is how the authorities interpret the law. Maybe in Germany this can be solved by constitutional question, but in Indonesia there is no such mechanism," he said. (Lulu Anjarsari)

Translated by: Yuniar Widiastuti