Constitutional Justice Enny Nurbaningsih visiting the Constitutional Court of Austria (Verfassungsgerichtshof), Friday (6/23/2023). Photo by MKRI.

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VIENNA (MKRI) — As part of her official to Hungary and Austria, Constitutional Justice Enny Nurbaningsih visited the Constitutional Court of Austria (Verfassungsgerichtshof or VfGH) on Friday, June 23, 2023. At the meeting, she and the delegation of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Indonesia (MKRI) engaged in a discussion with Justice Georg Lienbacher, a senior justice of VfGH, and protocol and international relations officer Dr. Reinhild Huppmann.

The discussion was focused on institutional development of both institutions. Justice Enny also said that Law No. 23 of 2004, which forms the basis for the Constitutional Court, has been amended several times. Each change affected the Court as an institution, including its supporting units. Therefore, discussion with the Constitutional Court of Austria were directed toward seeking needed inputs for legislatures when amending the Constitutional Court Law.

She also revealed that some legal experts and Constitutional Court stakeholders expect the MKRI to expand its judicial review authority to include constitutional complaint and constitutional question cases. She hoped that the Constitutional Court of Austria as the oldest constitutional court in the world could share experiences of handling these types of cases.

Justice Lienbacher, who has served the Court since 2011, revealed that structurally the Constitutional Court of Austria consists of 14 justices and the president of the Court heads the Court and serves as a spokesperson in charge of communicating its policies to the public. All of its hearings are conducted in plenary, except for cases whose substance does not warrant in-depth examination, for example, petitions that do not fall under the Court’s jurisdiction. It receives around six thousand petitions a year, with only around 300 worthy of plenary examination.  For each case, a justice is appointed as the person in charge and is responsible for preparing all the necessary materials to be reported to all the justices so they understand the subject matter and be able to decide the cases. In preparing materials, each justice is supported by several legal clerks who have various duties, including reviewing and studying cases. This review and assessment support aims to ensure that the decisions do not conflict with previous decisions.

Justice Lienbacher also revealed that one of the biggest challenges of his Court occurred in 2016, when the Court had to cancel the results of the presidential election. It had to refer to a 1928 decision, when Hans Kelsen was a sitting justice. At that time, the Court had to request a copy of the decision from the national archive because it had not been digitized.

From the discussion, it was revealed that unlike the MKRI, the Austrian counterpart, not the law, regulates the deadline for examining and resolving disputes over election results. Justice Enny revealed that although the deadline for these cases is regulated by law and very limited, so far the MKRI has never violated the provisions for it.

After the discussion, the MKRI delegation was invited to several important rooms in the Constitutional Court of Austria, which is located at the center of Vienna. They visited the plenary courtroom and the justice deliberation meeting (RPH) room at the highest floor. The meeting was concluded with an agreement between the two courts to always strengthen communication and cooperation for institutional development.

Author       : SH/ESP
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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