Chief Justice Anwar Usman and Secretary-General M. Guntur Hamzah opening APHTN-HAN and the Law and Human Rights Ministry’s technical assistance program on Legal Drafting Batch III by Tuesday (9/7/2021) in the Constitutional Court. Photo by Humas MK/Panji.

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Tuesday, September 7, 2021 | 07:19 WIB

JAKARTA, Public Relations—The Constitutional Court (MK) collaborated with the Ministry of Law and Human Rights and the Association of Constitutional and the Administrative Law Lectures of Indonesia (APHTN-HAN) to organize the technical assistance program (bimtek) on Legal Drafting Batch III virtually on Monday evening, September 6, 2021.

Chief Justice Anwar Usman in his keynote speech said that legal drafting was an important element in the formation of laws and regulations under it. He said legal drafts were important in facilitating the formulation and discussion of legislation.

“Therefore, legal drafters must understand the process, mechanism, and procedure of legal drafting. Correct understanding of legal drafting will help understand the legislation produced,” he said alongside Secretary-General M. Guntur Hamzah.

Justice Anwar believes that in legal drafting the drafters are not only obligated to meet legislation target and the legal politics, but also to understand the constitutional norms used as a reference.

“Any mistake in legal drafting could lead to formal or material unconstitutionality [of the legislation],” he stressed.

Justice Anwar added that lawmaking also required the understanding of the amendment to the 1945 Constitution in 1999-2002. The amendment included the significant inclusion of human rights in Chapter 10A. Although human rights are not only mentioned in Chapter 10A, its inclusion in a special chapter indicates that the state is committed to guaranteeing the citizens’ constitutional rights.

This means that lawmaking must be guided by the fulfillment and protection of the citizens’ constitutional rights. The establishment of the Constitutional Court in the amended Constitution also serves to guard the citizens’ constitutional rights. The Court, Justice Anwar said, has a duty to guarantee the implementation of the citizens’ constitutional rights through laws as mandated by the 1945 Constitution.

Writer        : Utami Argawati
Editor        : Nur R.
Translator  : Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)

Translation uploaded on 9/9/2021 14:41 WIB

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

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