One of the series of National Law Student Conference (NLSC) 2022 writing competition events is a seminar that was held on Friday (18/11/2022). The topic explored in the workshop was “Law Reform in Indonesia under the Constitution and Human Rights.” Secretary General of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Indonesia Prof. Dr. M. Guntur Hamzah, S.H., M.H., was invited as a speaker at the seminar.

Prof. Guntur explained the adage het achten de feiten an, which means that the law always hobbles in following legal events. This makes the science of law a science that is always left behind. However, Prof. Guntur explained that what was left behind was not his knowledge but the way of thinking of most legal people.

“Most legal people see the law dogmatically only, the provisions of the articles in the statutory regulations. The existence of law is not only for law but for society. It does not work in a vacuum, but its implementation always intersects with other scientific fields,” said the UNAIR alumnus.

Prof. Guntur then explained that the jurist must never forget the functions of law. This function is the law for social engineering, social balancing, and social support. He added that the functions and principles of law must be understood and interpreted by juries because the law is not only limited to dogmatic aspects. Not only that, the formulation and application of law must go hand in hand with the values of human rights and constitutional rights.

“The 30 types of human rights in the General Declaration of Human Rights (DUHAM) are already contained in the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia. The translation of the principles in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights gives our constitution 66 types of constitutional rights. 34 are individual rights, 3 are vulnerable community rights, 29 are collective rights. The task of the Constitutional Court is to ensure that all Indonesian people can enjoy these rights,” said the jurist.