The Constitutional Court's Decision in the Dispute between the Supreme Court and the Judicial Commission: Banishing Judicial Accountability?
DEMOCRACY AND THE PROMISE OF GOOD GOVERNANCE, Andrew MacIntyre and Ross McLeod, eds., pp. 178-200, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies: Singapore
30 Pages Posted: 7 May 2009
Date Written: May 7, 2009
Abstract
Since former President Soeharto was forced to resign in 1998, the Indonesian judiciary has been significantly reformed. A Judicial Commission was established to monitor its performance. A Constitutional Court was also created; one of its tasks is to decide disputes between state institutions and to review the constitutionality of statutes. This paper discusses the Constitutional Court case in which several Supreme Court judges alleged that the Constitution’s guarantee of judicial independence precluded the Judicial Commission from supervising the Supreme Court’s performance by critically analysing its decisions. The Constitutional Court accepted this argument, declaring that the Indonesian Constitution prohibited the Judicial Commission from performing this function. This paper discusses this case and its potential ramifications.
Keywords: Indonesia, law, constitutional law, judicial review, comparative law
JEL Classification: K10, K30
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation