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Chief Justice Anwar Usman speaking at the online Special Education of Professional Advocate (PKPA) organized by the Indonesian Advocates Association (Peradi) of Greater Malang, Friday (23/10/2020) at the Joint Lecture Building of the Muhammadiyah University of Malang (UMM), East Java. Photo by Humas MK/Hendy.

JAKARTA, Public Relations of the Constitutional Court—Advocates play an important role in the enforcement of law and justice. The advocate profession is an extraordinary profession, even more than any other law enforcement professions. "Advocates also determine the enforcement of law and justice. when delivering arguments before the court in accordance with actual facts,” said Chief Justice Anwar Usman at the online Special Education of Professional Advocate (PKPA) organized by the Indonesian Advocates Association (Peradi) of Greater Malang in collaboration with the Muhammadiyah University of Malang (UMM) on Friday, October 23, 2020 at the Joint Lecture Building of UMM, East Java.

However, when advocates provide inaccurate facts and evidence and present dishonest witnesses, this will lead to the judge passing a wrongful ruling. The Bima-born justice said advocates must understand the formal and material procedural law.

Justice Anwar said the Constitutional Court was born from the amendment to the 1945 Constitution. He explained to the 53 participants that the Court has the authority to review laws against the Constitution at the first and final level. He revealed that the public also petitioned for judicial review to the Court even before a law is promulgated.

The Court also has the authority to decide on authority disputes between state institutions whose authorities are granted by the 1945 Constitution, disputes over general election results, the dissolution of political parties, and additionally, disputes over regional election results.

“There is one obligation of the Court, that is, to decide on the House’s opinion of alleged violation committed by the president and/or vice president,” he said. The provision changed the procedure of presidential impeachment and made it necessary to obtain a Constitutional Court ruling. In three months, the Court must rule whether the president and/or vice president is proven to have violated the Constitution. The ruling will lead to the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) plenary sessions, which requires a quorum of two-thirds members and the approval of three-quarters of the members in attendance.

Justice Anwar also explained how the procedural law in the Constitutional Court differs from that in the public court. In the public courts, witnesses are not to see each other in trials, while in the Constitutional Court, witnesses and experts could meet in the courtroom.

In the Q&A session, he answered a question on the Omnibus Law. He stressed that it wasn’t in his ethical capacity to answer such a question, as all laws can be challenged in the Constitutional Court.

Writer: Hendy Prasetya
Editor: Nur R.
Translator: Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)

Translation uploaded on 10/30/2020 22:08 WIB

Disclaimer: The original version of the news is in Indonesian. In case of any differences between the English and the Indonesian version, the Indonesian version will prevail.

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