Constitutional Justice Enny Nurbaningsih giving a public lecture to the academic community of the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences of the University of Bangka Belitung, Saturday (11/6/2021). Photo by Humas MK/Panji.

---

Saturday, November 6, 2021 | 15:25 WIB

BANGKA BELITUNG, Public Relations—Constitutional Justice Enny Nurbaningsih gave a public lecture to the academic community of the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences of the University of Bangka Belitung on Saturday, November 6, 2021. The event was part of the inauguration of a smartboard mini courtroom at the faculty, which took place the day before.

Justice Enny said that the Constitutional Court is inseparable from the history of the state administration. “If we talk about the Constitutional Court, we must understand the history of the state administration. The history of the state administration cannot be separated from the political dynamics at the time,” she said.

She revealed that the Constitutional Court was proposed by Moh. Yamin a long time ago. “In Indonesia, formulating a constitution should not only be concerned with the state management system or only with the president’s power. There [should be] one institution that can guarantee that the Constitution is enforced. Therefore, Yamin said there must be an institution that is given the authority to review products made by the legislatures,” Justice Enny said virtually.

At the time Yamin proposed that such an authority is given to the Supreme Court, Justice Enny said. However, at the time, the legal drafters did not desire any ideology that is related to capitalism, liberalism, and individualism.

“At the time, we were anti-colonialism after [being colonized] for so long. Therefore, Yamin’s proposal was rejected. However, the intention was [kept alive] by the Indonesian Legal Scholars Association,” Justice Enny said.

Constitutional Court’s Authorities

Before the Constitutional Court’s establishment, the MPR (People’s Consultative Assembly) was given a temporary authority to review laws against the 1945 Constitution and the MPR decrees. However, after the law was amended, the Constitutional Court was founded in 2003. It was granted the authorities to review laws against the 1945 Constitution, to decide on authority disputes between state institutions whose authorities are granted by the 1945 Constitution, to decide on the dissolution of political parties, and to decide on disputes over general election results. It is obligated to decide on the House’s opinion on an alleged violation of law committed by the president and/or vice president. However, now it is also authorized to review government regulations in lieu of laws (perppu), considering that they lead to new legal norms whose force is equal to laws.

Justice Enny also said that the constitutional justices are supervised at all time by an ethics council because they must maintain their ethics pursuant to Sapta Karsa Hutama (the seven principles or code of conduct for constitutional justices).

“Sapta Karsa Hutama is the constitutional justices’ ethics guidelines in carrying out their functions and authorities. [Constitutional] justices are in the position of silence decision. [They] cannot meet and interact with politicians, lawyers, nor can they behave inappropriately. They can’t even dress inappropriately,” Justice Enny stressed.

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

Translation uploaded on 11/9/2021 13:38 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.

---