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Constitutional Justice Arief Hidayat speaking at a moot court national webinar organized by the Law Faculty of Universitas 17 Agustus 1945 of Semarang, Saturday (26/6/2021) from the Constitutional Court. Photo by Humas MK/Ifa.

Saturday, June 26, 2021 | 14:57 WIB

JAKARTA, Public Relations—Indonesia’s law is not secular, but is based on the state’s ideology and constitution—Pancasila and the 1945 Constitution, said Constitutional Justice Arief Hidayat at a moot court national webinar on “Jurisprudence as a Legal Source of the Judge’s Decisions in Court” organized by the Law Faculty of Universitas 17 Agustus 1945 of Semarang, Saturday morning, June 26, 2021.

“In the Constitutional Court’s decisions there is the phrase ‘justice based on the One Almighty God.’ In reading decisions, […] not only are [constitutional justices] responsible to the nation and state, but also to the Almighty God,” he said.

Justice Arief said that Indonesia is a democratic legal state based on a constitution, or is a legal democracy. Therefore, the law cannot be treated as a commodity and those working in the law must exercise caution as they are responsible to God.

He also said that the judicial powers are regulated by Article 24 paragraph (2) of the 1945 Constitution, which stipulates that they are carried out by a Supreme Court and judicial bodies thereunder within the general, religious, military, state administrative judicial fields, and by a Constitutional Court.

“The Constitutional Court has the judicial review authority to review whether laws are consistent with the Constitution. If they are not, the Court can revoke those laws,” he said.

Shadow judicial review is sometimes applied in deciding on general and regional elections, so it can become jurisprudence. Justice Arief said the constitutional justices must refer to many sources of law—the 1945 Constitution, laws, and the views of experts and professors, as well as renowned literature references.

“It is important that the jurisprudence of the decisions that the Constitutional Court have made are based on empirical or social facts and, most importantly, the justices’ beliefs,” he stressed.

Link to the YouTube video: https://youtu.be/tGjm6AaRjnY

Writer        : Utami Argawati
Editor        : Lulu Anjarsari P.
Translator  : Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)

Translation uploaded on 6/28/2021 10:56 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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