Mahkamah Konstitusi Post Judicial Review of the 11/2020 Job Creation Law: Toward Politization of Judiciary?

Abstract

Since its inception in 2003, the Indonesian Constitutional Court is often seen as a strong court. This is because unlike some courts which can only declare the law inconsistent with the constitution, the Indonesian Constitutional Court can go further by invalidating the law produced by the legislature. This situation is often regarded as the judicialization of politics since the judiciary is involved in resolving political dispute. This situation, however, shifted significantly post judicial review of Job Creation Law. The Court declared Job Creation Law conditionally unconstitutional. The Court ordered the lawmakers to fix the lawmaking process by involving the public meaningfully in such process. The lawmakers' response however is way different from the Court order. Rather than fixing the law-making process, the lawmakers, specifically the government choose to enact government regulation in lieu of law (Perpu) to substitute Job Creation Law. This situation raises an important question what would be the lawmakers-judiciary relation after the judicial review of Law on Job Creation? Utilizing doctrinal approach as the research method, the paper argues that post judicial review of Job Creation Law, there is a tendency to shift from judicialization of politics to politization of judiciary. This can be seen how the lawmaker takes different approach (from the court decision) in following up the Court ruling concerning Job Creation Law even though the Court has provided some guidance for the lawmakers in fixing the lawmaking process. This situation somewhat reflects politization of judiciary as opposed to judicialization of politics.