The Constitutional Court’s (MK) national seminar on “The Digitization of Judicial Institutions and Its Future Challenges,” Wednesday (11/17/2021). Photo by Humas MK/Teguh.

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Thursday, November 18, 2021 | 06:25 WIB

JAKARTA, Public Relations—The Constitutional Court (MK) organized a national seminar on “The Digitization of Judicial Institutions and Its Future Challenges” on Wednesday, November 17, 2021. The seminar was part of the All-Indonesia University Student Constitutional Debate Competition XIV, which took place virtually. Constitutional Justice Arief Hidayat, Chief Constitutional Justice of 2003-2008 Jimly Asshiddiqie, and constitutional law professor of Padjajaran University Bagir Manan were panelists.

Remote Hearing

Constitutional Justice Arief Hidayat talked about the Court’s vision and mission to become a modern judicial body, which could not be more obvious amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The judicial review hearings are now virtual, starting from the preliminary hearing to the ruling hearing.

“Some cases were handled in a hybrid [(onsite and remote)] manner: pilkada [or regional head election disputes]. When resolving pilkada [disputes], the physical evidence must be reviewed authentically, so [the hearings] must be conducted a hybrid manner. It could be done virtually but the evidentiary hearings must be done onsite with strict compliance of health protocols,” he explained.

He said that all the constitutional justices and the litigants who came into the Court building had to undergo COVID-19 testing—antigen or PCR. In terms or technicality, issues arose when the litigants protested the test and showed a letter showing they were COVID-free. The Court’s medical team would then authenticate the letter.

Justice Arief further revealed that this era of technological disruptions has had extraordinary impacts on the advances of civilization. Technological advances give all information to our hand through smartphones. Technological disruptions also brought positive and negative impacts. Some retail businesses had to close due to emerging online platforms. Shopping malls saw a decrease in visitors.

Archive Digitization

In the seminar, Chief Constitutional Justice of 2003-2008 Jimly Asshiddiqie said that since its founding, the Constitutional Court had realized the future digital world.

“Once the Court was founded, we started carrying out hearings. In 2004 we started handling the first [legislative] and presidential election cases. For your information, in one month, the Court’s building was full of documents, evidence from all across Indonesia. Because [the Court] had difficulty with it, I invited the National Archives to digitize them,” he said virtually.

He added that the Court’s filing system became more modern after handing over the documents to the National Archives. Then, in 2004 the Court received budget for virtual courtrooms.

“So we built those courtrooms at law faculties throughout Indonesia so that [petitioners] wouldn’t have to come to the Constitutional Court [in person],” he explained.

He believed today everything has gone digital. To the judiciary, it is inevitable.

Meanwhile, constitutional law professor of Padjajaran University Bagir Manan said in his presentation that technology has been consolidated. To prepare for such advances, issues must be identified for when it is inevitable to apply technology.

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

Translation uploaded on 11/19/2021 18:20 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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