Selected decisions of the Constitutional Court

Selected decisions of the Constitutional Court

1. Case: challenge to Article 68 of Law No. 30/2002 giving the
Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) retrospective powers.

Result: The court rules that the KPK's powers are prospective
and that it can only investigate cases that have been dealt with
by police or the prosecution service before its establishment in
2002. However, it rejects the challenge as the article does not
satisfy the criteria for retroactivity adopted in international
law.

2. Case: challenge to Article 43(1) of Law No. 26/2000 giving the
human rights tribunal retroactive jurisdiction

Result: The court rejects the challenge, arguing that the rule
against retroactivity is not absolute in a situation of
"transitional justice".

3. Case: challenge to Article 49(1) of Law No. 20/2003, which
delays the allocation of 20 percent of the state budget for
education

Result: The court accepts the petitioner's argument that the
government must immediately allocate 20 percent of the state
budget on education, but rejects the challenge on the grounds
that if it were to be approved, it could cause chaos in the
country due to the need to revise all budget allocations.

4. Case: challenge to Law No. 7/2004 on water resources

Result: Although the court rejects the challenge to the law,
it requires the government to ensure affordable access to water
resources on the part of the public, and to enshrine this in law.
Should the government fail to do so, the court ruled that the
petitioners could file a new challenge against the legislation.