Judges need scholarly assistance: Expert

Judges need scholarly assistance: Expert

JAKARTA (JP): State administrative court judges need
independent experts to help their judges reach truly objective
decisions, a prominent lawyer proposed yesterday.

T. Mulya Lubis said the presence of experts in the courts
would help improve the judicial system in Indonesia, which has
been viewed as "far from ideal".

"The experts' job will include providing ideas to aid judges
so that the decisions they make are more objective," he said
while addressing a two-day workshop on state administrative court
held by the Ministry of Justice.

On hand were bureaucrats and law experts, including Girindro
Pringgodigdo, the dean of administrative law school at the
University of Indonesia and judge Benjamin Mangkoedilaga.

Mangkoedilaga was this year's winner of the Suardi Tasrif
award, for his role in promoting the freedom of the press.

Lubis said he was inspired by administrative court judges'
admission that they have limited knowledge on many fields and
that they need experts to give them input to deal with particular
cases.

He suggested that the experts, whom he called "lay judges",
may be recruited from among professionals, especially those who
work in independent research centers, such as the Center for
Strategic and International Studies and the Center of Information
and Development Studies.

He said that justice in Indonesia is still difficult to
realize because the government is overly strong, social control
is weak, the masses' educational level is low and press freedom
is curtailed.

Scholarly assistance for judges is important because in the
future, courts will have to try cases that involve sophisticated
technology which was never imagined in the past. (16)