Deputy Chief Justice Saldi Isra welcoming delegation from Leiden University at his office, Monday (5/15/2023). Photo by MKRI/Panji.

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JAKARTA, (MKRI) — A delegation from Leiden University visited the Constitutional Court (MK) and met with Deputy Chief Justice Saldi Isra on Monday morning, May 15, 2023. Dean and professor of criminology Joanne van der Leun, Adrian Bedner, another professor, and two other representatives expressed their wish to exchange ideas to strengthen the relations between the university and state institutions in Indonesia.

“Leiden University would like to strengthen its relations with partners in Indonesia, especially the Constitutional Court, in order to learn about the Court’s developments in handling cases, especially in law, criminal justice, and politics within the constitutional judiciary,” Bedner said.

Deputy Chief Justice Saldi also expressed his hope that the cooperation between the two institutions could be followed up by the signing of a memorandum of understanding. He added that the Constitutional Court needed perspectives and views of experts and researchers from the university on criminal justice. He hopes the university will participate in the Court’s international symposium in August.

“This cooperation can begin with the attendance of Leiden University at an international symposium that will take place in August 2023. Hopefully experts and researchers of the university can share their experience and impression on how the Government settle private, civil, and criminal cases. In addition, [the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Indonesia] also needs cooperation in research on many disciplines so that [the Court] can do improvisations and development in case resolution. Hopefully this cooperation can provide expert references and viewpoints from the Netherlands, especially from Leiden University, especially regarding legal approaches by state administrators in response to legal cases,” he said in his remarks alongside Acting Secretary-General Heru Setiawan, Head of the International Affairs Division Immanuel Hutasoit, and assistant to constitutional justice Pan Mohamad Faiz.

During the visit, Hutasoit and Faiz also introduced to the Leiden delegation the Court’s facilities for foreign researchers, such as the Court’s English-language website and journal Constitutional Review—the journal publishes articles on the development of law, the Constitution, and the citizens’ constitutional rights by experts and researchers—as well as nationally accredited library.

“Through this cooperation, hopefully Leiden University can open access to references in its libraries and law faculty for the Court so it will be able to play its role in the settlement of legal cases in Indonesia,” Faiz said.

The university’s delegation welcomed the wish and they said they would follow up on it to expand cooperation between the two institutions. After a warm discussion, the delegation was taken to see the results of the resolution of the 2019 election dispute cases and to the courtrooms and library.

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 version, the Indonesian version will prevail.

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