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Monday, February 15, 2021 | 14:30 WIB

Chief Justice Anwar Usman at the inauguration of Chief Supreme Justice Muhammad Syaifuddin as a Visiting Professor of Criminal Law of Diponegoro University virtually, Thursday (11/2/2021) from the Constitutional Court. Photo by Humas MK/Ifa.

JAKARTA, Public Relations of the Constitutional Court—Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court (MK) Anwar Usman attended the inauguration of Chief Supreme Court Justice Muhammad Syaifuddin as a visiting professor of criminal law of Diponegoro University virtually on Thursday, February 11, 2021. President Joko Widodo and Vice President Ma’ruf was also in attendance virtually. Other guests and participants participated in the events both virtually and in person.

Delivering his speech on “The Criminal System Reform in Modern Judicial Practices: Legal Heuristic Approach,” Justice Syarifuddin said that the judge, law, and justice are an inseparable triad. The judge has the important role of harmonizing law and justice, interpret provisions, and creating new rules in a norm.

“Passing a sentence is the culmination of the battle between conscience and the creative work of the judge in enforcing law and [achieving] justice,” said the Baturaja-born man.

He added that enforcing law is the process of sorting and defining the final form as heuristics. Law enforcement is an art that requires special abilities possessed by the implementing actors—the judges. Law enforcement must be able to narrate justice completely, including rationalizing framework and substantive justice.

Judges are responsible for their decisions to God. They are in the only position where they exercise part of God’s power to uphold justice, so judges are usually referred to as “His/Her Excellency.” However, the glory is not in their great power, but in their wisdom and discretion as an individual.

He revealed that there are still convictions that cause disparity of punishment, especially regarding the criminal acts of corruption, causing injustice. Society in general is subjective in interpreting justice.

"Disparity is deemed responsible for injustice, [and] it is feared that it will raise skepticism towards law enforcement officials, and people’s respect for the law will be low," he said.

Justice Syarifuddin procedural justice impeded people from finding justice. In addition, judges must have independence in thinking and in making decisions. Problem-solving will be difficult if a judge is fixated on following normative rules. Therefore, he believed judges must think holistically and progressively in order to realize true justice.

He concluded his speech with a message by Umar bin Khattab to Abu Musa al Asy’ari, "Treat humans equally in your view, in your assembly, and in your decisions, so that weak people do not despair for your justice; [do not let] people in high positions lure you into deceit.”

Writer: Ilham Wiryadi Muhammad
Editor: Nur R.

Translator: Yuniar Widiastuti
Editor: NL

Translation uploaded on 02/19/2021 15:31 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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