Chief Justice Anwar Usman, Head of the Center for Analysis and Evaluation of BPHN Yunan Hilmy, and Acting Head of the Pancasila and Constitution Education Center Imam Margono at the opening of the virtual technical assistance program for legal analysts Batch I, Monday (7/4/2022). Photo by Humas MK/Yuwandi.

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Monday, July 4, 2022 | 21:48 WIB

JAKARTA, Public Relations—The development of the legal advocacy competency such as the technical assistance program on the procedural law for judicial review are necessary for legal analysts, said Head of the Center for Analysis and Evaluation of National Laws of the National Law Development Agency (BPHN) Yunan Hilmy at the Technical Assistance Program on the Procedural Law for Judicial Review for Legal Analysts Batch I organized by the Constitutional Court’s Pancasila and Constitution Education Center (Pusdik). Chief Justice Anwar Usman and the Acting Head of the Pancasila and Constitution Education Center Imam Margono were in attendance.

“[This program] will be part of the competency development of legal advocacy that analysts of legal advocacy or litigation needs,” Yunan said virtually on Monday afternoon, July 4, 2022.

He said that legal analyst is a functional position in law that was now open and could be filled by central and regional institutions. He explained it was a relatively new position created based on the Regulation of the Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform Minister No. 51 of 2020 dated July 7, 2020. They were appointed through inpassing and structural reorganization, especially the elimination of the echelon 3 and 4 positions.

“Based on recapitulation that we currently have, 1,120 legal analysts were appointed through the first batch of structural reorganization and inpassing across 27 ministries and agencies and 15 provincial governments as well as 15 provinces and 133 regencies/cities. The number will remain across institutions that will appoint more for the second batch of inpassing until the 7 July deadline,” he explained.

Yunan hoped these legal analysts would have understanding of the procedural for judicial review in the Constitutional Court, especially for those who would be tasked with litigating on behalf of their institutions. “This program will be a moment for us training institutions to develop similar activities to develop the competency of legal analysts,” he stressed.

Main Authority

Chief Justice Anwar Usman said in his keynote speech that the judicial review of laws is the Constitutional Court’s core business or main authority because the Constitutional Court was established as the manifestation of checks and balances on both the executive and legislative branches. While the other two branches of power have the positive authority to make laws, the Constitutional Court has the negative authority to invalidate them.

Such a balance between branches, he added, emerged from the idea of the need for balance within a democracy that prioritizes popular sovereignty versus normative sovereignty that is its state consensus. He also said that when the Constitutional Court was founded, it was regulated by Law No. 24 of 2003 on the Constitutional Court. In that Law, there is an article that laws that could be reviewed were only those promulgated after the amendment to the 1945 Constitution. This provision was based on the principle that law must be prospective, not retroactive.

“However, the provision was in opposition to the spirit of the founding of the Constitutional Court, which is to provide protection of constitutional rights to the citizens against the enactment of any law that is unconstitutional. Any law promulgated before the amendment to the 1945 Constitution could potentially violate citizens’ constitutional rights. If the norm had remained, of course in the procedural law for judicial review this would be a formal requirement to file a judicial review petition. Therefore, since 2004, the provision was annulled by the Constitutional Court through Decision No. 066/PUU-II/2004,” Justice Anwar said.

At the end of his remarks, he expressed his hope that the technical assistance program, which would take place for four days, would run in an orderly fashion and benefit all participants and promote the enforcement of the Constitution and law in Indonesia.

Pentahelix Target Group

Meanwhile, the Acting Head of the Pancasila and Constitution Education Center (Pusdik) Imam Margono said the program had involved various elements of society, which consists of the pentahelix target groups—the government, academics, business entities or actors, civil society organizations or communities, and the media.

“The Constitutional Court’s commitment to involve those target groups has been proven by the program’s alumni spread across all territories of Indonesia, currently reaching 33,101 since the establishment of the Pancasila and Constitution Education Center in 2013. Today, one of the targeted groups are [state civil apparatuses], specifically legal analysts from the Ministry of Law and Human Rights,” Imam said.

The program was expected to introduce to the legal analysts the paradigm based on the values of Pancasila and the 1945 Constitution. “The re-introduction to the noble values of Pancasila is expected to continue so that Pancasila will become a driving spirit and guide of conduct for all participants that have trained with Pusdik,” he stressed.

The four-day program, which was set to take place on Monday-Thursday, July 4‒7, 2022, was attended by 400 participants. The participants received materials on the Constitution, the Constitutional Court, the procedural law for judicial review, and the drafting of judicial review petition. Former constitutional justices, substitute registrars, and other speakers would deliver presentations.

Writer        : Sri Pujianti
Editor        : Lulu Anjarsari P.
Translator  : Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)

Translation uploaded on 7/6/2022 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.

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