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Four reasons why Constitutional Court's reasoning is not compelling

Thursday, January 18, 2007

In our newspaper Article, we highlighted four reasons why Constitutional Court's reasoning in invalidating Article 53 of the KPK Law was less compelling. The four reasons are:
  • First, there is no evidence whatsoever that regulating the Corruption Court in the same law as the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) automatically violates the Constitution. The Constitution only mandates that the composition, membership, appointment and procedural law of the courts existing below the Supreme Court is regulated by a law. The KPK law has fulfilled such requirements and should therefore be consistent with the Constitution.
  • Second, there is no guarantee that "equality before the law" will be observed by simply segregating the corruption court in a new law other than the KPK law. In order to be fully constitutional, the future corruption court must have specific competencies in adjudicating all corruption cases, as part of a "one-roof" system.
  • Third, the Constitutional Court did not clearly establish the link between a violation of the "equality before the law principle" and why the existence of the corruption court under the KPK law violates such a principle. The reference made by the court in justifying its argument is more to "a custom of regulation", and not directly about the Constitution itself. It is a custom in Indonesia that special courts are regulated through specific legislation, but this custom does not imply that it is a Constitutional requirement to regulate specific courts in an exclusive law.
  • Fourth, there is presently no direct constitutional injury suffered by anyone due to these measures, so the dangers as seen by the court are potential, not actual. It is true that there has been discrimination against people in corruption cases -- those who go to ordinary courts are generally treated more lightly compared to those detained by the KPK. However, these are not direct constitutional injuries but merely injuries caused by a corrupt legal system. Had the legal machinery functioned properly, these negative effects could be minimized as the law has already outlined the exact competencies of each institution.