Students of Sekolah Global Mandiri on a field trip to the Constitutional Court, Monday (3/13/2022). Photo by MKRI/Bayu.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — The Constitutional Court (MK) brought the image of hearings to resolve the presidential election results dispute, said Adrian, a student of Sekolah Global Mandiri on a field trip to the Constitutional Court on Monday, March 13, 2023. The simple but accurate answer was then explained by an expert assistant to constitutional justice of the Court’s Center for Research, Case Review, and Library Management, Mery Christian Putri, in her presentation on “The Constitutional Court and the Protection of the Citizens’ Constitutional Rights.”

She then explained the role of the Constitutional Court, i.e. to guarantee the citizens’ constitutional rights. Quoting American professor of law and political science Donald L. Horowitz, she said that the state plays a role as a mechanical and ideological-aspiration, in that the Constitution regulates state organs, their procedures, their authority, and the ways to counter abuse of authority, and so on. She also explained the ideas of Prof. Sri Soemantri, an Indonesian constitutional law expert, on the protection of human rights and citizens’ rights, fundamental constitutional structure, fundamental division, and limitation of power.

“Essentially, the Constitutional Court’s role can be simplified as such: if any laws are against the 1945 Constitution, the Court can review them and annul them, either entirely or partially,” she said before fifty students who were taking mid-semester tests and visited the Court in the first leg of the field trip.

Mery then explained the administrative structure of Indonesia, starting with the amendment to the 1945 Constitution, which led to the change to the judiciary. The Constitutional Court’s authority, as referred to in Article 24C paragraphs (1) and (2) of the 1945 Constitution. The Court has the authority to adjudicate laws against the 1945 Constitution at the first and last instance with decisions that are final, to settle authority disputes between state institutions whose authorities are granted by the 1945 Constitution, to decide the dissolution of political parties, and to settle disputes over general election results.

She added that after the Court’s Decision No. 85/PUU-XX/2022 pronounced on September 29, 2022—in which it declared Article 157 paragraph (3) of Law No. 10 of 2016 unconstitutional and not legally binding—disputes over the certification of the final vote results of the regional election are also adjudicated by the Constitutional Court.

In between her explanations, Mery allowed the students to ask questions. They then asked who the former and current chief justices were/was. Mery explained that the answer to the students’ questions were all available on the Court’s website. She also introduced the products of this modern judicial institution, such as electronic petition information system (Simpel), case tracking, decision annotation, e-minutes, electronic constitutional case registration book (e-BRPK), live streaming of the Court hearings, remote hearings, and the Court’s social media accounts.

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

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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