From November 12th – 14th, 2012 a three-day training with the title “The 3rd Litigator Training on Judicial Review” has been conducted in Lippo Village, Tangerang. This activity marks the third training of a series - the first one has been carried out on September last year in Bogor and the second training has been conducted in June in Bandung. The training had been attended by 35 participants that comprised experts of the Indonesian Ministry of Justice and Human Rights as well as legal departments of other Indonesian ministries, e.g. the Ministry of Education and Culture and the Ministry of Research and Technology. Representatives of other institutions, e.g. State Secretariat, Secretariat of Indonesian Parliament, and from the Institution for National Development Planning.

The training consisted of the following three parts:

Opening Ceremony:

The opening of the seminar on November 12th 2012 was attended by a representative from the general directorate for legislation. The director of legislation, publishing and cooperation, Ms. Ibu Cholilah, who was also the head of the training committee, has delivered opening remarks including the presenation of the training activities. The subsequent opening speech was held by a representative of the Hanns Seidel Foundation Jakarta. Last but not least, the general director of the department for legal drafting, Dr. Wahiduddin Adams has officially opened the training. During his opening remarks, Dr. Wahiduddin has emphasized the importance of human resources that are well-qualified and -educated in the field of the litigation of laws in order to improve the work of the field of judicial reviews. Dr. Wahiduddin was positive that this training seminar could help on that matter. Also attending the opening of the seminar was the director for legislation from the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, Dr. Mualimin Abdi.

Presentations and discussions:

Like the two preceeding trainings seminars, this event has also included speakers with academic backgrounds (Universitas Padjajaran Bandung, Universitas Indonesia Jakarta dan Universitas Indonusa Esa Unggul Jakarta), Constitutional Judges and representatives from the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights. The first speaker was Dr. Indra Prawira (UNPAD), who has delivered a presentation on the intertpretation of “Paragraph 28 from the Indonesian Constitution from 1945 about human rights”. The following session was led by a constitutional judge, Dr. M. Akil Mochtar, who was talking about “judicial review and constitutional procedures at the Constitutional Court”. The second training day began with Dr. Zaenal Arifin Husein form the renowned Universitas Indonesia. He delivered a presentation on “Judicial Review at the Supreme Court”. Both the Constitutional Court as well as the Supreme Court have the competencies to review legal drafts, however with differing tasks: the Constitutional Court reviews legal drafts based on the constitution whereas the Supreme Court reviews bylaws and decrees based on national laws.

“It is already proven that the judicial review at the Constitutional Court requires judicial reason” was one of the main points of Dr. Irman Putra Sidin, who is a legal academic expert. The presentation session was closed by the director for litigation from the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, Dr. Mualimin Abdi, who explained the role of the government when it comes to judicial reviews. This presentation gave valuable practical inputs for how to make statements of Government.

Working group session:

For the working group session, the participants were divided into three groups in order to practice the elaboration of the Government’s statement connected to the application for judicial reviews. The interest and enthusiasm of the participants could be seen in the discussion forum, which lasted until late in the evening. On the third day, the working groups have presented their results until the training has been officially closed by the director for legislation, publishing and cooperation from the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, Ms. Cholilah.