Chief Justice Anwar Usman opening a focus group discussion for legal experts and academics and a constitution awareness program (PPHKWN) for academics, Thursday (12/15/2022) at the Pancasila and Constitution Education Center, Cisarua, Bogor. Photo by MKRI/Ifa.

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Thursday, December 15, 2022 | 21:49 WIB

BOGOR (MKRI) — Roman philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero said ubi societas ibi ius (“Wherever there is society, there is law”). Law changes and develop along with developments in society. Its development is inseparable from the contribution and role of the academia, said Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court (MK) Anwar Usman when opening a focus group discussion for legal experts and academics and a constitution awareness program (PPHKWN) for academics on Thursday, December 15, 2022 at the Pancasila and Constitution Education Center, Cisarua, Bogor, West Java Province.

In his remarks, Anwar also said higher legal education has contributed to the nation as many scholars and national figures were law graduates. He added that Pancasila is the state ideology, the basic norm that guides national life. “We are gathering here to discuss the developments of higher legal education toward Pancasila-based legal system,” he said.

He believes the enforcement of just and socialized enforcement of the law cannot be separated from the meaning of the state philosophy Pancasila, especially the second precept.

“We must be proud that the law-based state Indonesia has unique characteristics that set it apart from other countries in the world, which is Pancasila,” he added.

The legal world in the future, he believes, will be influenced by today’s development in the higher legal education.

“The duties of the higher legal education to produce quality graduates who have integrity is important, given our commitment to realizing a just rule of law,” he said.

“If we do not maintain justice, justice will not maintain us,” he added, quoting 16th-century British philosopher Francis Bacon (Lord Verulam).

Therefore, he said, the development of higher legal education must be directed at producing graduates who have the competence and characters in accordance with Pancasila, for the sake of upholding the rule of law that the founders of the nation aspired to.

Intellectual Contributions

Meanwhile, acting Secretary-General Heru Setiawan said in his report said that the Constitutional Court invited professors, academics, and experts in order to contribute ideas to the Constitutional Court, in an effort to improve the citizens’ awareness of constitutional rights, improve the quality of higher legal education, and develop law in Indonesia.

He explained that the FGD of legal experts and academics and PPHKWN for academics were held to re-orient legal curricula, to make sure legal education is imbued with the characters of Pancasila. “The results of this discussion can later be realized and followed up through programs and events that are in line with the Constitutional Court’s vision and mission,” he said.

The FGD and PPHKWN will take place for four days from December 15-18 2022, with 34 professors and academics from in attendance. The participants will receive material on the Constitution and constitutionalism and practice actualizing Pancasila directly.

Writer        : Ilham W. M.
Editor        : Lulu Anjarsari P.
Translator  : Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)

Translation uploaded on 12/26/2022 08:14 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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