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Jakarta Post

House passes amendments to Constitutional Court law

The House of Representatives has passed a revision of the Constitutional Court Law that includes some significant changes to the court’s authority

Dicky Christanto (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Wed, June 22, 2011

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House passes amendments to Constitutional Court law

T

he House of Representatives has passed a revision of the Constitutional Court Law that includes some significant changes to the court’s authority.

Activists and scholars, however, see the amendments as limiting the powers of the court and posing a potential threat to the court’s independence in handling future cases.

“We have agreed to pass the Constitutional Court law revision through this plenary meeting,” House Deputy Speaker Priyo Budi Santoso said Tuesday.

He said the House, in cooperation with the government, had made some serious changes to the law.

One controversial amendment is that the Constitutional Court will no longer be allowed to issue a ruling other than on the subject requested by those who pressed the charges, in legal terms known as an ultra petita ruling.

“The court often moves far beyond its authority by making a new legal norm out of the context. We should, of course, be very critical of this,” Law and Human Rights Minister Patrialis Akbar said in a speech before the plenary meeting.

Patrialis said the revision also changed the tenure of the court’s chief justice and deputy to two years and six months from three years.

“This is due to the equality principle. So it is expected that every justice will have the chance to be a leader,” he said.

Another crucial change involves the honorary council. In the past, the council consisted solely of Constitutional Court justices.

But the revision allows a different composition of representatives from the Judicial Commission, the House, the Supreme Court, the Constitutional Court and the Law and Human Rights Ministry. Patrialis said he expected the revision would further support the court in carrying out its duties.

Firmansyah Arifin of the National Consortium for Legal Reform (KRHN) criticized the amendments, saying the revisions would undermine the court’s future performance.

“It will be hard for the court to be able to serve justice seekers with thorough justice now,” he said.

Hasanuddin University legal expert Irman Putra Sidin shared a similar concern, but acknowledged a loophole that could provide the court with an exit strategy.

“The prohibition [of making ultra petita rulings] is like a castle made of sand. The Constitutional Court could easily break that off whenever it wants to,” he said.

In other words, he said, should the court later find and manage to prove that complying with the prohibition was a serious violation of the Constitution, then it could even annul the current Constitutional Court law.

Constitutional Court chief justice Mahfud MD said he could live with that situation even though he admitted he wasn’t satisfied.

“I will honor the decision,” he said. “However, if one day, someone challenges the law because he or she feels the law has seriously violated his or her constitutional rights, then I will seriously consider that,” he said.

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