Judicial Commission of Indonesia

Judicial Commission of Indonesia

The idea of a body to consider and give a final ruling on the appointment, promotion, transfer or dismissal of judges 1st arose in 1968 but failed to make the statute books. Pressure for the establishment of a body to bring about an honest, clean, transparent and professional legal system resurfaced in 1998 after president Soeharto resigned from office. On 9 November 2001, during its annual session, the People's Consultative Assembly passed the 3rd amendment to the Constitution of Indonesia, mandating the establishment of a Judicial Commission. The proposal to establish the Judicial Commission was added into the amendment at the last minute and, in the view of some observers, the Commission was established in a hasty way. On 13 August 2004, Law No. 22 on the Judicial Commission was promulgated and on 2 July 2005, the president officially appointed the seven members of the Commission. The members were sworn in by the president on 2 August 2005.
The commission proposes candidates for the Indonesian Supreme Court and works to "maintain the honor, dignity and behavior of judges". Members are appointed by the president with the agreement of the Indonesian House of Representatives. The precise authority of the Judicial Commission, however, isn't agreed as between the different branches of the legal system in Indonesia. It was reported in mid-2011, for example, that since its establishment in 2005 the Judicial Commission had summoned nine justices to be investigated for alleged ethics violations but that none had answered the summonses. Members of other branches of the legal system, such as Supreme Court judges, were reported to have taken the view that the Judicial Commission was exceeding its powers in attempting to summon judges in certain cases.
The Commission suffered a major blow to its authority when the Constitutional Court in August 2006 granted a request filed by 31 judges of the Supreme Court to drop activities that gave the Commission the power to investigate alleged violations by Supreme Court and Constitutional Court justices. Following that decision of the Constitutional Court, it was agreed that the powers of the Judicial Commission needed to be clarified. Most recently, during 2011, the Indonesian House of Representatives had under consideration a revision to the 2004 Judicial Commission Law which would strengthen the powers of the Judicial Commission to directly punish high court and district court judges. Under the proposed changes to the law, however, the authority to punish Supreme Court justices would remain with the Supreme Court.

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