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BOGOR, Public Relations of the Constitutional Court—Technical guidance programs on the constitution are expected to improve the citizens’ understanding of constitutional rights. As part of society, architects must also have good, comprehensive understanding of human rights and how to fight for them. This was said by Deputy Chief Constitutional Justice Aswanto at the closing ceremony of a technical guidance program on the constitution for the Indonesian Institute of Architects (IAI) on Thursday (5/3/2020) at Grha 3 of the Constitutional Court’s Pancasila and Constitution Education Center, Bogor, West Java.

Justice Aswanto added, Indonesia has a rule of law. That is why in all aspects of life it must be framed with agreed norms in the form of Pancasila, Preamble to the 1945 Constitution, the Body of the 1945 Constitution, and how human rights are not denied by anyone including the state.

"Even the constitution provides limits to the state. There are things that are very principle-wise and subjective that cannot be intervened by the state. That is the basic rules that exist in our Constitution," Justice Aswanto explained to 75 participants, along acting Head of the Pancasila and Constitution Education Center Imam Margono and Chairman of the Indonesian Institute of Architects Ahmad Djuhara.

This applies to architects. Without certification, an architect must not practice. Justice Aswanto said there is a guarantee for a profession in the law. The state guarantees the rights of citizens who could have been victims of the profession. A practicing architect must have a license or certification and meet administrative requirements. "This is an example of constitutional democracy. In other words, every right has limits so as not to clash with the rights of others," he explained.

Law Literate

A participant from East Nusa Tenggara expressed their gratitude for the opportunity to learn constitution and legal issues from the Constitutional Court, which will be beneficial for architects. It will help them fight for their rights and professions in the future. “The program made us realize that practicing architects must be literate in law and the constitution,” Budi said.

Procedural Law

On the third day of the program, supervisory researcher Pan Mohamad Faiz delivered a presentation on “The Constitution and the 2020 Procedural Law on Judicial Review.” He said that the first judicial review was done by the Supreme Court of the United States of America in 1803 while the Constitutional Court was first established in Austria in 1920, initiated by Hans Kelsen. In Indonesia, the Court was established in 2003. Although Indonesia was 200 years behind the founders of the first constitutional courts, technological advances helped Indonesia catch up. “Indonesia is a [founder] of constitutional court association in the world. Even, in Asia, we are the only representative,” Faiz said.

Faiz then introduced the models of laws that can be challenged at the Constitutional Court. He also explained the 2020 procedural law on judicial review at the Constitutional Court, which architects must follow when litigating at the Constitutional Court. The judicial review of laws includes material and formal reviews. The material review focuses on the substance of a law, be it the articles and/or the elucidation. The formal review focuses on the procedure of lawmaking, whether the formulation of a law has fulfilled the requirements or not.

“[Petitioners] could also file for both formal and material reviews at the same time. However, it must be noted that a formal review has a deadline of 45 days after the law is promulgated, while a material review could be filed for without any [restrictions],” Faiz explained.

The participants were then divided into 4 parallel classes to practice drafting a petition and statements of all litigating parties. The Indonesian Institute of Architects drafted petitions on several choices of laws, such as the Architect Law, the Construction Services Law, the Engineer Law, and the Higher Education Law. The participants were assisted by experienced Constitutional Court’s researchers and substitute registrars.

Use of ICT

On the fourth day, Thursday morning (5/3/2020), Muhamad Aussie and Rachman Karim of the Court’s IT Unit introduced some uses of the technology in filing a petition to the Constitutional Court. As a modern judicial institution, the Court is committed to applying technological advances.

“[You] could visit the page mkri.id to understand the [documents] and information needed by the [litigating] parties, such as Court transcripts, decisions, summaries, annotations. Any documents needed are available real time and we also use certified digital signatures,” Aussie explained.

Rachman explained the procedure of filing a petition online. Before the architects, he demonstrated the features related to filing a petition online. “So, [the filing of] an online petition can be done by anyone and anywhere. However, the Court also allows filing a petition offline, especially [your] attorneys [who] will be directed to the Court’s Digital Corner at the ground floor,” Rachman explained.

The technical guidance program on the Constitution for the Indonesian Institute of Architects took place for four days, Monday-Thursday (2-5/3/2020). All participants will listen to presentations related to constitutional law and governance according to the 1945 Constitution delivered by constitutional justices, constitutional law experts, researchers, and substitute registrars of the Constitutional Court. (Sri Pujianti/LA)

Translated by: Yuniar Widiastuti

Translation uploaded on 3/9/2020

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