House Commission III member Arteria Dahlan speaking at a bimtek on SKLN for Peradi members and management, Tuesday (9/6/2022) virtually. Photo by MKRI/Teguh.

---

Tuesday, September 6, 2022 | 18:31 WIB

JAKARTA (MKRI)—The technical assistance program (bimtek) on the procedural law for authority disputes between state institutions (SKLN) for the management and members of the Association of Indonesian Advocates (Peradi) continued on Tuesday, September 6, 2022 virtually from the Constitutional Court’s (MK) Pancasila and Constitution Education Center (Pusdik MK) in Cisarua, Bogor, West Java.

On this second day, the Court presented several speakers: former Constitutional Justice of 2003-2008 and 2015-2020 I Dewa Gede Palguna on “Constitutional Interpreter,” House Commission III member Arteria Dahlan on “The Constitutional Court and the Characteristics of Its Procedural Laws,” and Pan Mohamad Faiz on “The Procedural Law for Interagency Authority Dispute.”

In his presentation, I Dewa Gede Palguna said constitutional interpretation constitutes the methods and strategies to resolve disputes regarding the meaning or application of the constitution.

“Therefore, constitutional interpretation is a mechanism to find out or ensure whether the constitution has been implemented in accordance with the meanings contained in it and the objectives to be realized,” he said virtually.

He added that the constitution is relatively static and is hard to change. However, he believes it requires improvements, with constitutional interpretation being one of the ways to do it (aside from formal change to and convention on the state administration).

Also read: Not All State Agencies’ Authorities Come from Constitution 

Constitutional Court as Constitutional Interpreter

Palguna also explained that in countries that believes in constitutional supremacy, the authority to interpret the constitution is given to the courts, be it separate (constitutional court or equivalent) or “ordinary” courts. In other words, judicial supremacy applies in constitutional interpretation and that only the interpretation by the court has binding legal force and is final. The court has a supreme position in the interpretation of the constitution.

“Judicial supremacy is a doctrine that the court is the legal interpreter of the constitution or the court as the final interpreter in matters of constitutional interpretation. In essence, the court has a supreme position in the interpretation of the constitution, so that only its interpretation is legally binding,” he explained.

He also emphasized that the constitution requires independent interpreters that are not subject to public pressure or electoral instability. If the courts are not given such authority, the constitutional order is threatened by political squabbles. Thus, the Constitutional Court as the interpreter of the constitution implies that only the interpretation of the constitution by the Constitutional Court (through its decisions, particularly on constitutional review) that is legally binding.

Procedural Law for SKLN

Meanwhile, expert assistant to constitutional justices Pan Mohamad Faiz explained authority disputes between two or more state institutions (SKLN). The state institutions in question are only those whose authority/rights and duties/obligations are granted by the 1945 Constitution.

He further explained that in such a case, the institution claims its constitutional authority to have been taken away, reduced, restricted, disregarded, and/or harmed by another state institution. It must have a direct interest in the disputed authority. The respondent in such a case is a state institution that is claimed to have taken away, reduced, restricted, disregarded, and/or harmed the petitioner’s constitutional authority.

The petition, Faiz explained, is written in Indonesian and must contain the profile of the petitioner, such as the name of the institution, its leader, and full address; a clear description of the authority in dispute, the petitioner’s direct interest in it, and the matters it requests to be decided. The petition should be made into 12 copies and signed by the president or the head of the state institution or their proxy. The petition can also be submitted in a digital format and stored in a floppy disk, compact disk, or the like.

“A petition on authority disputes between state institutions is filed free of charge,” he stressed. 

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

Translation uploaded on 11/9/2022 08:24 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.

---