The First Constitutional Court Chief Justice Jimly Asshiddiqie is a speaker at the Webinar on the Constitution, Friday (12/07/2024), organized by the Constitutional Court in collaboration with the Faculty of Law of Andalas University. Photo PR/Ilham WM

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — The Constitutional Court (MK) held a Webinar on the Constitution with the theme “Ethical Judiciary and Constitutional Ethics” on Friday, July 12, 2024. The Law Faculty of Andalas University organized the event, which invited the first Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court, Jimly Asshiddiqie.

Jimly Asshiddiqie said that there are different perspectives among experts about ethics. He explained that theologians have a different view, while in the context of state life, it is an applied ethic. Because of this difference, he wrote “Ethical Judiciary and Constitutional Ethics.”

Ethics must be supported by institutional infrastructure for its implementation so that it can be conducted in an integrated and coordinated manner by all state institutions. Currently, the implementation of ethics is conducted individually.

Jimly further explained that the Constitution has only been conceived as the supreme law, while in fact, it is the highest national consensus as set out in the rule of law, so it is not only the supreme law but also the highest norm.

Jimly gave an example of ethical regulation in the constitution, such as the oath of office and impeachment of the president and/or vice president if they commit misconduct. Even if we trace back the history of nomocracy, Plato idealized the value system of power according to rules, not democracy. Next, Jimly added, nomocracy has narrowed its meaning over time, especially after secularism separated politics from religion and the church from the state. Since then, said Jimly, legal norms and ethical norms have become more separated.

“The problem that emerged after the 20th century is whether we should narrow the meaning of the constitution only as the supreme law, which currently proved insufficient. That's why in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, there was an awareness of the importance of ethics that had to be written down in the form of a code of ethics and code of conduct,” Jimly said.

According to him, this is based on the development of law, which was once unwritten and only based on judges' decisions, resulting in the term judge-made law. Similar to law, which experienced positivization, ethics also experienced positivization in written form.

In the seminar moderated by Beni Kurnia Illahi, Mr. Jimly said that for the effectiveness of ethics enforcement, the United Nations (UN) also recommended the establishment of an ethics enforcement infrastructure in each country for public service providers. This gave rise to ethics enforcement institutions, which, before, ethics was a private domain.

Jimly emphasized that Pancasila is the supreme source of the law and also serves as the supreme source of ethics. So, the Constitutional Court is not only dealing solely with the Constitution but also the legal and ethical norms, the Constitution, and Pancasila.

In response to a question from some online participants, Mr. Jimly revealed that he had met with Chief Justice Suhartoyo to organize a meeting between institutions and public figures related to the ethics court. He explained that law and ethics cannot be separated; law is analogized as the body while ethics is the spirit; the law can't be upheld if ethics do not function properly. However, there is a case of violation of law that does not violate ethics, and vice versa, so it should not be rigid in enforcing the law and ethics.

Author              : Ilham Muhammad wati
Editor               : Lulu Anjarsari P.
Translators       : M. Ariva Aswin Bahar/Rizky Kurnia Chaesario (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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