Experts favor amending law on judicial power

JAKARTA (JP): Two legal experts threw their weight Saturday behind the Indonesian Judges Association's proposal that the 1970 law on judicial power be amended to make the judiciary more independent.

Soehardjo S.S., a law professor at the Semarang-based Diponegoro University, said the law needed amending to keep pace with development, while Harkristuti Harkrisnowo of the University of Indonesia hoped that a more conducive atmosphere would support an independent judiciary.

"There has been a lot of development in fields such as labor, taxation and trade, to mention a few. So it's no longer sufficient that the law regulates only four courts of justice," Soehardjo said.

Law No. 14 1970 mentions only four courts of law: general, military, religious and state administrative courts.

Soehardjo said that, in line with a rapidly developing society, more special courts were needed such as a court to handle tax cases.

He dismissed the association's idea that the judiciary be managed by the Supreme Court alone instead of in conjunction with the Ministry of Justice. He called this proposal "unrealistic."

"The Supreme Court has been burdened with too many technical jobs already. They cannot afford to handle the administrative aspects of the judiciary," Soehardjo said.

But Harkristuti said she agreed that "one-roof management" of the judiciary would be better because it would help establish an independent judiciary.

"Although the current law states in the first place that it guarantees judicial independence, it has practical problems," she said.

Criticism

Like the House of Representatives which has been much criticized for functioning only as a rubber-stamp institution, the judicial system has constantly come under attack for its perceived submissive attitude to the government.

Harkristuti argued that placing the judiciary under one-roof management would by no means guarantee judges' independence because independence relied heavily on judges' attitudes and behavior.

"But still, academically speaking, the government has no strong argument on why a one-roof management judiciary under the Supreme Court should be ruled out," she said.

Minister of Justice Oetojo Oesman dismissed over the weekend the idea to put the judiciary under the Supreme Court's management, arguing that no one could guarantee that it would improve.

The judicial system has been criticized by many legal experts who charge that courts mostly decide in favor of the government. (08)