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Constitutional Court researcher Bisariyadi welcoming students of the Law Graduate Program of Universitas Dr. Soepomo University (Unitomo), Surabaya, Monday (6/1) in the Delegation Room. Photo by Humas MK/Ifa.

JAKARTA, Public Relations of the Constitutional Court—Constitutional Court (MK) researcher Bisariyadi welcomed 32 students of the Law Graduate Program of Universitas Dr. Soepomo University (Unitomo), Surabaya, Monday (6/1/2020). He then proceeded to talk about constitutional justices.

"Speaking of the composition of constitutional justices, we talk about individual constitutional justices in the Constitutional Court. However, in terms of verdict, it is rather difficult to trace the [footprint] of individual constitutional justices," Bisariyadi explained. He said that in the U.S. and commonwealth countries, names of the justices who gave their legal opinions are written in court decisions.

"So [it is clear who wrote what]. However, the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Indonesia applies a civil law system. In civil law countries, the court decisions are collective. The decisions of the Constitutional Court of Germany are also collective and would not mention the names of the justices who gave legal opinions," Bisariyadi said.

"When justices offer their legal opinions, it is not exposed to the public but is compiled in a decision," he added.

Bisariyadi explained that a justice’s footprint can be traced when they express a dissenting opinion in a decision and when they agree with the majority of justices but with a different reason. "However, it is rather difficult to observe the personal traces of the justices in the Constitutional Court\'s decisions," he said.

That is why it is not easy for Constitutional Court researchers to trace the footprints or thoughts of the constitutional justices, especially those who rarely express dissenting opinions and often draft the decisions.

"It could be that this is influenced by the character of civil law from Germany [and] France. The structure of ruling of the Constitutional Council of France and the Constitutional Court of Indonesian is the same; both containing the [expressions] \'considering that, given that...\'," Bisariyadi explained.

According to Bisariyadi, the Constitutional Council of France is interesting to be studied because of its relatively short decisions. "Even the decisions of the Constitutional Council of France are only 5-8 pages. They immediately formulate the decisions, just as we compiled legal considerations," he added.

Thus, Bisariyadi said, many consider the decisions of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Indonesia too lengthy, for example a decision on the election results dispute reaches 5,000 pages. This issue must be reexamined.

"How many pages is the elaboration? How many pages is the legal consideration? This is precisely the legacy of civil law. [It is] stark in contrast to decisions in commonwealth countries, [where] one judge can write up to 30 pages," Bisariyadi concluded. (Nano Tresna Arfana/LA)

Translated by: Yuniar Widiastuti

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