The Invisible Constitution in Comparative Perspective



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The Invisible Constitution in Comparative Perspective by Rosalind Dixon (editor), Adrienne Stone (editor) (z-lib.org)

Law Review 15.

53 


Alec Stone Sweet, Governing with Judges: Constitutional Politics in Europe (Oxford: Oxford 

University Press, 2000), 135.




316 

Simon Butt

10.3.3.  Practical Consequences of ‘Discovering’ Rights

In these decisions, the Court has proclaimed the existence of these rights 

almost in the abstract, considering no practical implications of their coming 

into being. For example, the Court has not explained the consequences of a 

breach of process-related rights. If a trial is procedurally unfair or due process 

is ignored, will the final judicial decision be invalid? Will trials in which these 

rights are ignored be automatically open to appeal because an error of law has 

been made?

The Court’s decision about legal aid in the Advocates Law case is par-

ticularly simplistic and lacking in foresight. It is unclear whether the Court 

intended that the right to legal aid was a broad right to legal aid for any 

Indonesian citizen for any case, regardless of financial means, or only for those 

without sufficient means to afford an advocate. This lack of elaboration leaves 

unanswered fundamental questions about the right’s practical operation. If 

the right applies only to those unable to afford a lawyer, then how ‘poor’ must 

one be to qualify for legal aid? Does the right apply in all cases – criminal, 

civil and administrative? Does the right apply to support vexatious litigants or 

unrealistic claims? Further, the Court did not specify who was to fund and 

administer the provision of legal aid apparently required by its decision.

10.4.  Explanations and Conclusions

Despite having a significant basis upon which to complain, the government 

has not responded to any of the democratic or constitutional objections to 

implying rights mentioned above. Indeed, in 2011, when Indonesia’s national 

parliament changed the Constitutional Court’s governing law – directed at 

reining in the Court, which appeared to have been expanding its powers and 

usurping the legislative function – the Court’s implied rights jurisprudence 

was ignored. The amendments focused on other ways in which the parlia-

ment thought the Court was pushing the boundaries of its jurisdiction, such 

as by issuing orders to government, invalidating laws or provisions that appli-

cants had not requested and, most importantly, issuing declarations of condi-

tional constitutionality or unconstitutionality.

54

 That implied rights escaped 



unscathed appears to indicate that the state did not see their ‘discovery’ and 

‘application’ as a threat to legislative power.

There are several possible explanations for this, four of which I now turn to 

discuss. One is that, as mentioned, the constitutional rights the Court appears 

54 

Simon Butt and Tim Lindsey, The Indonesian Constitution: A Contextual Analysis (Oxford: 



Hart Publishing, 2012).


 

The Indonesian Constitutional Court 

317


to have implied were already provided as express statutory rights. On this read-

ing, these implied rights added no substantive legal entitlements to those cit-

izens already enjoyed, about which there is no controversy. The presumption 

of innocence is, for example, found in several Indonesian statutes, includ-

ing Indonesia’s basic judiciary laws,

55

 and the 1999 Human Rights Law.



56

 The 


Code of Criminal Procedure and the Human Rights Law also provide other 

rights and guarantees commonly associated with a fair trial and due process.

However, this explanation underplays the significance of what the Court 

has done in these implied rights cases. It ignores that the Court appears to 

have elevated to constitutional status rights that had previously only been pro-

vided by statute. This is an important development, because it brings these 

rights within the jurisdiction of the Court to enforce. (As mentioned, the 

Court’s judicial review power is limited to ensuring the constitutionality of 

statutes. It has no power to apply or enforce statutes. Only the Supreme Court 

and the courts below it in Indonesia’s judicial hierarchy have power to do 

this.) Various judges of the Constitutional Court have indicated that it often 

takes on the responsibility to provide ‘justice’ when other state institutions, 

including other courts, have failed to do so.

57

 This analysis – of the Court as 



‘the backstop of justice’ – seems to encompass a critique of other courts in 

Indonesia for failing to ensure that the state and its officers do not trample on 

important process-related rights of citizens.

A second explanation emphasises that sometimes the rights the Court has 

implied from the Negara Hukum concept have, as mentioned, been reflected 

in or encompassed by other express constitutional rights. In most cases in 

which the Court appears to have favoured this approach, the Court could 

probably have reached the same decision simply by applying only the express 

constitutional rights provisions, without recourse to the Negara Hukum 

concept.


Perhaps the strongest example of this approach is found in Constitutional 

Court Decision 16/PUU-VIII/2010 – a case in which the Court was asked to 

review legislative provisions that prohibited a person from asking the Supreme 

Court to reopen a case more than once. This process, called peninjauan kem-



bali, allows the Supreme Court to review an earlier court decision – even 

one of its own appeals – in the interests of justice because of new evidence or 

obvious judicial error.

55 


See, for example, Article 8 of Law 4 of 2004 on Judicial Power.

56 


See, for example, Article 18(1).

57 


Rita Triana Budiarti, Kontroversi Mahfud M.D. (Jakarta: Konstitusi Press, 2012).


318 


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