ALIK IBE

The Sense of Justice in John Rawls

2012-01-05T18:04:00.000-08:00

One area of Rawls’s work that has received relatively little attention in the literature is his account of moral psychology. The idea of a “sense of justice” is at the heart of this account;according to Rawls it is the primary source of our motivation to act in accordance with principles of justice.

However, Rawls carefully notes that a sense of justice is more than simply being able to follow the rules.

It is the ability to feel or perceive what is fair, and as a result it provides us with “the capacity to understand, to apply, and normally to be moved by an effective desire to act from (and not merely in accordance with) the principles of justice as the fair terms of social cooperation”.

A sense of justice leads one to realize that members of a society need fair terms of cooperation, and it expresses the willingness, if not the desire, to act in relation to others on terms everyone can endorse publicly.

Rawls’s earliest formulation of the idea of a sense of justice is in the 1963 essay, “The Sense of Justice,” which explores Rousseau’s claim that “the sense of justice is a true sentiment of the heart enlightened by reason, the natural outcome of our primitive affections”.

In this essay, Rawls seeks to answer some questions about the capacity for a sense of justice, including what accounts for people doing what justice requires. At bottom, a sense of justice is a feeling or sense of right and wrong, but more specifically it is a sense of fairness. It makes us not want to take advantage of others and it is the source of our feelings of indignation toward those who do. A sense of justice is also the source of our feelings of sympathy for those who are the victims of circumstances that we would call unjust. I will have more to say about these circumstances in a moment, but for now we should note that a sense of justice causes us to perceive, feel, and react in certain ways to certain kinds of situations. This is why Rawls maintains that one’s sense of justice “may be aroused or assuaged, and it is connected not only with such moral feelings as resentment and indignation but also...with natural attitudes such as mutual trust and affection”.

Although a sense of justice leads us to value fairness generally, Rawls’s analysis focuses on circumstances in which individuals are marginalized as a result of circumstances beyond their control, and which dramatically shape their life-prospects. People are born into particular families and thus begin their lives in social positions they have not chosen. These social positions shape one’s hopes and expectations, and the opportunities one has to fulfill those hopes and expectations are determined in part by the political system as well as economic and social circumstances. Rawls is particularly concerned that the basic structure of society can perpetuate these circumstances, when it should help correct them. Rawls observes that “our prospects over life are deeply affected by social, natural, and fortuitous contingencies, and by the way the basic structure, by setting up inequalities, uses those contingencies to meet certain social purposes”.

Rawls has three kinds of contingencies in mind here: (1) one’s social class of origin (the class into which one is born and develops before the age of reason); (2) one’s native endowments (as opposed to one’s realized endowments) and the opportunities one has to develop them due to one’s social class of origin; (3) one’s good or ill fortune, or good or bad luck over the course of life. The latter includes how one is affected by illness and accident, or by periods of involuntary unemployment and regional economic decline.

Rawls notes that these contingencies are the source of especially deep inequalities: “Not only are they pervasive, but they affect men’s initial chances in life; yet they cannot possibly be justified by an appeal to the notions of merit or desert. It is these inequalities, presumably inevitable in the basic structure of any society, to which the principles of social justice must in the first instance apply”.

LEGAL PERSONALITY

2011-05-30T05:42:00.000-07:00

Legal personality (also artificial personality, juridical personality, and juristic personality) is the characteristic of a non-human entity regarded by law to have the status of a person.

A legal person (Latin: persona ficta), (also artificial person, juridical person, juristic person, and body corporate, also commonly called a vehicle) has a legal name and has rights, protections, privileges, responsibilities, and liabilities under law, just as natural persons (humans) do. The concept of a legal person is a fundamental legal fiction. It is pertinent to the philosophy of law, as is essential to laws affecting a corporation (corporations law) (the law of business associations).

Legal personality allows one or more natural persons to act as a single entity (a composite person) for legal purposes. In many jurisdictions, legal personality allows such composite to be considered under law separately from its individual members or shareholders. They may sue and be sued, enter into contracts, incur debt, and have ownership over property. Entities with legal personality may also be subject to certain legal obligations, such as the payment of tax. An entity with legal personality may shield its shareholders from personal liability.

The concept of legal personality is not absolute. "Piercing the corporate veil" refers to looking at individual human agents involved in a corporate action or decision; this may result in a legal decision in which the rights or duties of a corporation are treated as the rights or liabilities of that corporation's shareholders or directors. Generally, legal persons do not have all the same rights as natural persons - for example, human rights or civil rights (including the right to freedom of speech, although the United States has become an exception in this regard).

The concept of a legal person is now central to Western law in both common law and civil law countries, but it is also found in virtually every legal system.

PERKUMPULAN / PERHIMPUNAN / ORGANISASI (VERENIGING)

2011-05-30T02:53:00.000-07:00

Keberadaan lembaga sosial tidak lepas dari adanya nilai dan norma dalam masyarakat. Di mana nilai merupakan sesuatu yang baik, dicita- citakan, dan dianggap penting oleh masyarakat. Oleh karenanya, untuk mewujudkan nilai sosial, masyarakat menciptakan aturan-aturan yang tegas yang disebut norma sosial. Nilai dan norma inilah yang membatasi setiap perilaku manusia dalam kehidupan bersama. Sekumpulan norma akan membentuk suatu sistem norma. Inilah awalnya lembaga sosial terbentuk. Sekumpulan nilai dan norma yang telah mengalami proses institutionalization menghasilkan lembaga sosial.

Organisasi yang didirikan tentu memiliki sasaran yang ingin dicapai secara maksimal. Oleh karenanya suatu organisasi menentukan sasaran pokok mereka berdasarka kriteria-kriteria organisasi tertentu. Adapun sasaran yang ingin dicapai umumnya menurut J Winardi adalah:

Organisasi berorientasi pada pelayanan (service organizations), yaitu organisasi yang berupaya memberikan pelayanan yang profesional kepada anggotanya maupun pada kliennya. Selain itu siap membantu orang tanpa menuntut pembayaran penuh dari penerima servis.
Organisasi yang berorientasi pada aspek ekonomi (economic organizations), yaitu organisasi yang menyediakan barang dan jasa sebagai imbalan dalam pembayaran dalam bentuk tertentu.
Organisasi yang berorientasi pada aspek religius (religious organizations)
Organisasi-organisasi perlindungan (protective organizations)
Organisasi-organisasi pemerintah (government organizations)
Organisasi-organisasi sosial (social organizations)

Perkumpulan / perhimpunan ialah yang lazim dalam bahasa Belanda disebut vereniging (sebagai lawan kata dari maatschap atau vennootschap) seperti yang diatur dalam KUH Perdata Buku III Bab IX; Stb 1970-64; dan Stb 1939-570, adalah perkumpulan yang tidak termasuk dalam hukum dagang. Baik yang berbadan hukum maupun tidak berbadan hukum.

Adapun tentang Yayasan tidak termasuk dalam pengertian perkumpulan dalam arti sempit ini yang diatur secara khusus menurut Undang-undang Nomor 16 Tahun 2001 dan UU Nomor 28 Tahun 2004. Stichting atau yayasan adalah suatu badan hukum yang berbeda dengan badan hukum perkumpulan ataupun perseroan, oleh karena berkaitan dengan sejumlah kekayaan (asset) yang harus diurus dan digunakan (bagaimana mengurus harta/budel), yang tidak bertujuan untuk membagikan kekayaan dan atau penghasilan kepada pendiri atau pengurusnya dan orang-orang lain.

Ciri-ciri yayasan :
1. ada tujuan (sosial non komersial)
2. tidak ada keanggotaannya;
3. tidak ada hak bagi pengurus untuk mengubah tujuan;
4. modal yang menjadi kekayaan yang dipisahkan untuk pencapaian
dari suatu tujuan.

Adapun tentang Perkumpulan (usaha dagang) merupakan pengertian yang luas meliputi semua persekutuan, koperasi dan perkumpulan saling menanggung, yang meliputi perkumpulan berbadan hukum dan yang tidak berbadan hukum.

Perkumpulan (usaha dagang) yang berbadan hukum :
1. perseroan terbatas;
2. koperasi;
3. perkumpulan saling menanggung.

Perkumpulan (usaha dagang) yang tidak berbadan hukum :
1. persekutuan perdata;
2. persekutuan firma;
3. persekutuan komanditer.

Adapun dalam perkumpulan / perhimpunan memiliki anggota yang meliputi beberapa orang yang hendak mencapai suatu kehendak / tujuan dam bidang non ekonomis (tidak untuk mencari keuntungan) bersepakat untuk mengadakan suatu kerja sama yang bentuk dan caranya diletakan dalam apa yang dinamakan Anggaran Dasar atau Reglemen atau Statuten. Sifat perkumpulan adalah perjanjian yang dituangkan dalam akta pendirian.

Istilah yang sering dijumpai yaitu : Verein (Jerman), Association (Inngris), Union (Prancis), adapun dalam bahasa indonesia, yaitu : Perkumpulan, Perhimpunan, Lembaga, Paguyuban, Perikatan, Ikatan, Persatuan, Kesatuan, Serikat, dan lain-lain.

Tujuan Perkumpulan ini adalah non-ekonomis dan diatur dalam peraturan perundang-undangan, yaitu :
1. KUH Perdata Buku III Bab IX, berjudul Van Zedelijke Lichamen
(Perkumpulan), Pasal 1653 s/d 1655, yang kemudian ditambah
dengan Pasal 1656 s/d 1665;
2. Stb 1870-64 tentang Badan Hukum bagi Perkumpulan
(Rechtspersoonlijkeheid van Verenigingen);
3. Stb 1939-570 bsd 717 tentang Perkumpulan Indonesia
(Inlandsche Vereniging).

Kedudukan badan hukum dari perkumpulan menurut Stb 1870-64 itu diperoleh sesudah ada pengakuan (pengesahan) dari Menteri Kehakiman (sekarang Menteri Hukum dan HAM). Pasal 1 berbunyi : "Tiada suatu perkumpulan orang-orang apa pun juga dapat bertindak sebagai badan hukum, selain dari yang didirikan menurut peraturan umum (algemene verordening) dan itu pun jika sudah diakui oleh Gubernur Jenderal (sekarang Menteri Hukum dan HAM), atau oleh pejabat yang ditunjuk.

Dalam rangka pembinaan dan pengawasan maka setiap perkumpulan didaftar pada Kementerian Dalam Negeri.

Staatsblad 1933 – 84 Pasal 11 point 8:
”perkumpulan yang tidak didirikan sebagai badan hukum menurut peraturan umum tidak dapat melakukan tindakan-tindakan perdata”.

Bedasarkan pembahasan di atas, maka jelas perbedaan antara Perkumpulan dalam arti sempit dengan Perkumpulan dalam artin luas, serta perbedaannya dengan Yayasan (Stichting).

CONSTITUTIONAL LAW

2011-05-18T02:39:00.000-07:00

Constitutional law is a body of law dealing with the distribution and exercise of government power.

Not all nation states have codified constitutions, though all such states have a jus commune, or law of the land, that may consist of a variety of imperative and consensual rules. These may include customary law, conventions, statutory law, judge-made law or international rules and norms, and so on.

Constitutional laws may often be considered second order rulemaking or rules about making rules to exercise power. It governs the relationships between the judiciary, the legislature and the executive with the bodies under its authority. One of the key tasks of constitutions within this context is to indicate hierarchies and relationships of power. For example, in a unitary state, the constitution will vest ultimate authority in one central administration and legislature, and judiciary, though there is often a delegation of power or authority to local or municipal authorities. When a constitution establishes a federal state, it will identify the several levels of government coexisting with exclusive or shared areas of jurisdiction over lawmaking, application and enforcement.

Another main function of constitutions may be to describe the procedure by which parliaments may legislate. For instance, special majorities may be required to alter the constitution. In bicameral legislatures, there may be a process laid out for second or third readings of bills before a new law can enter into force. Alternatively, there may further be requirements for maximum terms that a government can keep power before holding an election.

The doctrine of the rule of law dictates that government must be conducted according to law.

Dicey identified three essential elements of the British Constitution which were indicative of the rule of law:

Absence of arbitrary power;
Equality before the law;
The Constitution is a result of the ordinary law of the land.

TERM OF LAW

2010-12-27T03:24:00.000-08:00

Term " law" coming from Arab language of hukmun with the meaning " specifying". In academic world, a more regular legal term befited with term of ius. written down Ius or constitutium is law and regulation (lege, droit, wet). Become, law can be interpreted as norm, both for written and also is unwritten. Law created by state bodys and government named by law and regulation (regel) or regulation of policy (regel policy, policy of regel). While monarchic laws named with Book ofKing. For customary laws which have been written down till now not yet owned special name.

Because of usage of ism or viewpoint / stream think which different each other, hence definition about law even also different each other also. There is four stream think which enough have an effect on in idea of law :

Stream Natural Law or Natural Law, having a notion that prima facie or highest law, which from Positive Law him come. Natural Law come from God comand.
Stream of Positivisme Law, having a notion that prima facie law is law coming or created by human being, namely Positive Law.
Stream History Punish or Historical Law, having a notion that law is rule of the game in assocciation of social which is found in society, its meaning of law represent nation soul/ head.
Stream Sociology Law, having a notion that order punish also come from religion institution and or society institution.

COMMON LAW AND RELIGIOUS LAW

2010-08-08T05:10:00.000-07:00

Country	Description
Bangladesh
Brunei
Gambia
India	based on English common law, separate personal law codes apply to Muslims, Christians, and Hindus except in Goa which follows Civil law based on Portuguese civil laws, but criminal penal law is uniform
Malaysia	based on English common law, personal law based on sharia law applies to Muslims
Nigeria	Sharia is applied in some northern states
Pakistan	based on English Common Law, some Islamic Law applications in inheritance. Tribal Law in FATA
Qatar

CIVIL LAW AND RELIGIOUS LAW

2010-08-08T05:05:00.000-07:00

Country	Description
Afghanistan
Algeria
Bahrain
Comoros
Djibouti
Egypt	Based on Islamic law and French civil law system
Eritrea
Indonesia	Based on civil law of Holland and adat (cultural law of Indonesia)
Morocco	Based on Islamic law and French and Spanish civil law system
Oman
Syria	Based on Islamic law and French civil law system
Jordan	Mainly based on French Civil Code and Ottoman Majalla, Islamic law applicable to family law.

CIVIL LAW AND COMMON LAW

2010-08-08T04:32:00.001-07:00

Country	Description
Botswana	South African law (a mixed system) transferred uno acto through a proclamation of reception
Cameroon
Cyprus	Based on English common law (Cyprus was a British colony 1878-1960), with admixtures of French and Greek civil and public law, Italian civil law, Indian contract law, Greek Orthodox canon law, Muslim religious law, and Ottoman civil law.
Guyana
Israel	Originally (1948) based on English common law; in the process, influenced by German civil law—for instance, between 1962 and 1981, the Knesset issued twenty (20) wide-ranging laws, which were clearly influenced by civil law, and were in the form of codes. Religious law plays a role, especially in matters of personal status and family law, and judicial and legislative decisions take into account Jewish law (halakhah) on occasion.
Lesotho	South African law (a mixed system) transferred uno acto through a proclamation of reception
Louisiana (U.S.)	Based on French and Spanish civil law, but federal laws (based on common law) are in effect in Louisiana as well.
Malta	Initially based on Roman Law and eventually progressed to the Code de Rohan, Code Napoleon with influences from Italian Civil Law. English common law however is also a source of Maltese Law, most notably in Public Law
Mauritius
Namibia	South African law (a mixed system) transferred uno acto through a proclamation of reception
Philippines	Based on Spanish law; influenced by U.S. common law after 1898 Spanish and Philippine-American Wars, personal law based on sharia law applies to Muslims
Puerto Rico (U.S.)	Based on Spanish law; influenced by U.S. common law after 1898 (victory of the U.S. over Spain in the Spanish-American war of 1898 and cession of Puerto Rico to the U.S.)
Quebec (Canada)	After the defeat of the French in the battle at the Plains of Abraham, the British allowed them to keep their language (French), their religion (Roman Catholicism), and their legal system (civil law). However, as Quebec is part of the Canadian Confederation, English-based laws applied at the federal level are in effect in Quebec also.
Saint Lucia
Scotland	based on Roman and continental law, with common law elements dating back to the High Middle Ages
Seychelles	The substantive civil law is based on the French Civil Code. Otherwise the criminal law and court procedure are based on the English common law. See Seychelles Legal Environment.
South Africa	An amalgam of English common law and Roman-Dutch civil law as well as Customary Law.
Sri Lanka	An amalgam of English common law, Roman-Dutch civil law and Customary Law
Swaziland	South African law (a mixed system) transferred uno acto through a proclamation of reception
Thailand	The Thai legal system became an amalgam of German, Swiss, French, English, Japanese, Italian, and Indian laws and practices. Even today, Islamic laws and practices exist in four southern provinces. Over the years, Thai law has naturally taken on its own Thai identity].
Vanuatu
Zimbabwe	South African law (a mixed system) transferred uno acto through a proclamation of reception

RELIGIOUS LAW

2010-08-08T03:42:00.000-07:00

Religious law refers to the notion of a religious system or document being used as a legal source, though the methodology used varies. For example, the use of Jewish Halakha for public law has a static and unalterable quality, precluding amendment through legislative acts of government or development through judicial precedent; Christian Canon Law is more similar to civil law in its use of civil codes; and Islamic Sharia law (and Fiqh jurisprudence) is based on legal precedent and reasoning by analogy (Qiyas), and is thus considered similar to common law. The main kinds of religious law are Sharia in Islam, Halakha in Judaism, and canon law in some Christian groups. In some cases these are intended purely as individual moral guidance, whereas in other cases they are intended and may be used as the basis for a country's legal system. The latter was particularly common during the Middle Ages.

The Islamic legal system of Sharia (Islamic law) and Fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) is the most widely used religious law, and one of the three most common legal systems in the world alongside common law and civil law. It is the most protected divine law, because, the majority of the ruleings of Sharia law is based on the Qur'an and Sunnah, while small fraction of its rulings are based on the Ulema (jurists) who used the methods of Ijma (consensus), Qiyas (analogical deduction), Ijtihad (research) and Urf (common practice) to derive Fatwā (legal opinions). An Ulema was required to qualify for an Ijazah (legal doctorate) at a Madrasah (school) before they could issue Fatwā. During the Islamic Golden Age, classical Islamic law may have had an influence on the development of common law and several civil law institutions. Sharia law governs a number of Islamic countries, including Saudi Arabia and Iran, though most countries use Sharia law only as a supplement to national law. It can relate to all aspects of civil law, including property rights, contracts or public law.

The Halakha is followed by orthodox and conservative Jews in both ecclesiastical and civil relations. No country is fully governed by Halakha, but two Jewish people may decide, because of personal belief, to have a dispute heard by a Jewish court, and be bound by its rulings.

Canon law is not a divine law, properly speaking, because it is not found in revelation. Instead, it is seen as human law inspired by the word of God and applying the demands of that revelation to the actual situation of the church. Canon law regulates the internal ordering of the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Anglican Communion. Canon law is amended and adapted by the legislative authority of the church, such as councils of bishops, single bishops for their respective sees, the Pope for the entire Catholic Church, and the British Parliament for the Church of England.

Country	Description
Afghanistan	Islamic law
Bangladesh	formerly based on English common law
The Gambia	English common law, Islamic law and customary law
Iran	Islamic law
Libya	Islamic law
Mauritania	mix of Islamic law and French Civil Codes, Islamic law largely applicable to family law.
Morocco	mix of Islamic law and French Civil Codes, Islamic law largely applicable to family law.
Nigeria	Sharia
Oman	Sharia and tribal custom laws
Saudi Arabia	Islamic law
Sudan	Based on Islamic law
Vatican City	Based on principles of Code of Canon Law
Yemen	Islamic law

COMMON LAW

2010-08-07T23:23:00.000-07:00

Common law and equity are systems of law whose sources are the decisions in cases by judges. Alongside, every system will have a legislature that passes new laws and statutes. The relationships between statutes and judicial decisions can be complex. In some jurisdictions such statutes may overrule judicial decisions or codify the topic covered by several contradictory or ambiguous decisions. In some jurisdictions judicial decisions may decide whether the jurisdiction's constitution allowed a particular statute or statutory provision to be made or what meaning is contained within the statutory provisions. Statutes were allowed to be made by the government. Common law developed in England, influenced by the Norman conquest of England which introduced legal concepts from Norman Law, which in turn was influenced by aspects of Islamic Law. Common law was later inherited by the Commonwealth of Nations, and almost every former colony of the British Empire has adopted it (Malta being an exception). The doctrine of stare decisis or precedent by courts is the major difference to codified civil law systems.

Common law is currently in practice in Ireland, most of the United Kingdom (England and Wales and Northern Ireland), Australia, India (excluding Goa), Pakistan, South Africa, Canada (excluding Quebec), Hong Kong, the United States (excluding Louisiana) and many other places. In addition to these countries, several others have adapted the common law system into a mixed system. For example, Nigeria operates largely on a common law system, but incorporates religious law.

In the European Union the Court of Justice takes an approach mixing civil law (based on the treaties) with an attachment to the importance of case law. One of the most fundamental documents to shape common law is Magna Carta which placed limits on the power of the English Kings. It served as a kind of medieval bill of rights for the aristocracy and the judiciary who developed the law.

Country	Description
American Samoa
Antigua and Barbuda	based on English common law
Australia	based on English common law
Bahamas	based on English common law
Barbados	based on English common law
Belize	based on English common law
Bhutan
British Virgin Islands	based on English common law
Canada	based on English common law, except in Quebec, where a civil law system based on French law prevails in property and private matters
Dominica	based on English common law
England and Wales (UK)	primarily common law, with early Roman and some modern continental influences
Fiji	based on English common law
Gibraltar	based on English common law
Ghana
Myanmar	based on English common law
Grenada	based on English common law
Hong Kong	principally based on English common law
India	based on English common law (except Goa which follows a Civil Law based on Portuguese Civil Law)
Ireland	based on Irish law before 1922, which was itself based on English common law
Jamaica	based on English common law
Kiribati	based on English common law
Marshall Islands	based on U.S. Law
Nauru	based on English common law
New Zealand	based on English common law
Northern Ireland (UK)	based on Irish law before 1921, which was itself based on English common law
Palau	based on U.S. Law
Pakistan	based on English common law with some provisons of Islamic law
Saint Kitts and Nevis	based on English common law
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	based on English common law
Singapore	based on English common law
Tonga	based on English common law
Trinidad and Tobago	based on English common law
Tuvalu	based on English common law
Uganda	based on English common law
United States	Federal courts and 49 states use legal system originally based on English common law but which diverged greatly in 19th century with substantial indigenous innovations and borrowing of some civil law practices such as codification; State law in the U.S. state of Louisiana is based upon French and Spanish civil law (see below)

CIVIL LAW

2010-08-06T01:11:00.000-07:00

Civil law is the most widespread system of law around the world. It is also sometimes known as Continental European law. The central source of law that is recognized as authoritative are codifications in a constitution or statute passed by legislature, to amend a code. While the concept of codification dates back to the Code of Hammurabi in Babylon ca. 1790 BC, civil law systems mainly derive from the Roman Empire, and more particularly, the Corpus Juris Civilis issued by the Emperor Justinian ca. 529 AD. This was an extensive reform of the law in the Byszantine Empire, bringing it together into codified documents. Civil law was also partly influenced by Religious Laws such as Canon Law and Islamic Law. Civil law today, in theory, is interpreted rather than developed or made by judges. Only legislative enactments (rather than judicial precedent, as in common law) are considered legally binding.

Scholars of Comparative Law and economists promoting the legal origins theory usually subdivide civil law into four distinct groups:

French civil law: in France, the Benelux countries, Italy, Romania, Spain and former colonies of those countries;
German civil law: in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, former Yugoslav republics, Greece, Portugal, Turkey, Japan, South Korea and the Republic of China;
Scandinavian civil law: in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. As former colonies, Finland and Iceland inherited the system from their neighbors.
Chinese law is a mixture of civil law and socialist law.

A comprehensive list of countries that base their legal system on a codified civil law follows:

Country	Description
Albania	The Civil Code of the Republic of Albania, 1991 really
Angola	Based on Portuguese civil law
Argentina	The Spanish legal tradition had a great influence on the Civil Code of Argentina, basically a work of the Argentine jurist Dalmacio Vélez Sársfield, who dedicated five years of his life on this task. The Civil Code came into effect on January 1, 1871. Beyond the influence of the Spanish legal tradition, the Argentinian Civil Code was also inspired by the Draft of the Brazilian Civil Code, the Draft of the Spanish Civil Code of 1851, the Napoleonic code and the Chilean Civil Code. The sources of this Civil Code also include various theoretical legal works, mainly of the great French jurists of the 19^th century. It was the first Civil Law that consciously adopted as its cornerstone the distinction between i. rights from obligations and ii. real property rights, thus distancing itself from the French model. The Argentinian Civil Code was also in effect in Paraguay, as per a Paraguayan law of 1880, until the new Civil Code went in force in 1987. During the second half of the 20th century, the German legal theory became increasingly influential in Argentina.
Andorra	Courts apply the customary laws of Andorra, supplemented with Roman law and customary Catalan law.
Aruba	Based on Dutch civil law
Austria	The Allgemeines bürgerliches Gesetzbuch (ABGB) of 1811
Azerbaijan
Belarus
Belgium	The Napoleonic Code is still in use, although it is heavily modified (especially concerning family law)
Benin
Bolivia	Influenced by the Napoleonic Code
Bosnia and Herzegovina	Influenced by Austrian law. The Swiss civil law (Zivilgesetzbuch) was a model for the Law on Obligations of 1978.
Brazil	Derived from the German and Roman civil law
Bulgaria	Civil Law system influenced by Germanic and Roman law systems
Burkina Faso
Burundi
Chad
People's Republic of China	civil law system; based on native customs and practices with Soviet and German influence
Republic of the Congo
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Cote d'Ivoire
Cambodia
Cape Verde	Based on Portuguese civil law
Central African Republic
Chile	The Spanish legal tradition exercised an especially great influence on the civil code of Chile. On its turn, the Chilean civil code influenced to a large degree the drafting of the civil codes of other Latin-American states. For instance, the codes of Ecuador (1861) and Colombia (1873) constituted faithful reproductions of the Chilean code, but for very few exceptions. The compiler of the Civil Code of Chile, venezuelan Andrés Bello, worked for its completion for almost 30 years, using elements, of the Spanish law on the one hand, and of other Western laws, especially of the French one, on the other. Indeed, it is noted that he consulted and used all of the codes that had been issued till then, starting from the era of Justinian. The Civil Code came into effect on January 1, 1857. Its technique is regarded as perfect; it is distinguished for the clarity, logic and cohesiveness of its provisions. As mentioned by Arminjon, Nolde, and Wolff ('Traite de droit comparé', Paris, 1950-1952) Andrés Bello may be regarded as one of the great legislators of mankind. The influence of the Napoleonic code is great; it is observed however that e.g. in many provisions of property law, the solutions of the French code civil were put aside in favor of pure Roman law.
Colombia	Civil code introduced in 1873. Nearly faithful reproduction of the Chilean civil code
Costa Rica	First Civil Code (a part of the General Code or Carrillo Code) came into effect in 1841; its text was inspired by the South Peruvian Civil Code of Marshal Andres de Santa Cruz. The present Civil Code is into effect since January 1, 1888, and reveals the influenced by the Napoleonic Code and the Spanish Civil Code of 1889 (from its 1851 draft version).
Croatia	Influenced by Austrian and Hungarian law. The Law on Obligations of 2005.
Cuba	Influenced by Spanish and American law with large elements of Communist legal theory.
Czech Republic	Descended from Austro-Hungarian Allgemeines bürgerliches Gesetzbuch, influenced by German (minor influence) and Soviet (major influence) legal codes during occupation periods, substantially reformed after the Velvet Revolution of 1989.
Denmark	Scandinavian-German civil law
Dominican Republic	Based by the Napoleonic Code
Ecuador	Civil code introduced in 1861. Nearly faithful reproduction of the Chilean civil code
El Salvador
Estonia
Finland	civil law system based on Swedish law
France	Based on the Napoleonic code (code civil of 1804)
Equatorial Guinea
Ethiopia
Gabon
Guinea	based on French civil law system, customary law, and decree
Guinea-Bissau
Georgia
Germany	The Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch of 1900 ("BGB"). The BGB is influenced both by Roman and German law traditions.
Greece	The Greek civil code of 1946, highly influenced by the German civil code of 1900 (Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch); the Greek civil code replaced the Byzantine-Roman civil law in effect in Greece since its independence (Νομική Διάταξη της Ανατολικής Χέρσου Ελλάδος, Legal Provision of Eastern Mainland Greece, November 1821: 'Οι Κοινωνικοί Νόμοι των Αειμνήστων Χριστιανών Αυτοκρατόρων της Ελλάδος μόνοι ισχύουσι κατά το παρόν εις την Ανατολικήν Χέρσον Ελλάδα', 'The Social [i.e. Civil] Laws of the Dear Departed Christian Emperors of Greece [referring to the Byzantine Emperors] alone are in effect at present in Eastern Mainland Greece')
Guatemala	Guatemala has had three Civil Codes: the first one from 1877, a new one introduced in 1933, and the one currently in force, which was passed in 1963. This Civil Code has suffered some reforms throughout the years, as well as a few derogations relating to areas which have subsequently been regulated by newer laws, such as the Code of Commerce and the Law of the National Registry of Persons. In general, it follows the tradition of the roman-French system of civil codification. Regarding the theory of 'sources of law' in the Guatemalan legal system, the 'Ley del Organismo Judicial' recognizes 'the law' as the main legal source (in the sense of legislative texts), although it also establishes 'jurisprudence' as a complementary source. Although jurisprudence technically refers to judicial decisions in general, in practice it tends to be confused and identified with the concept of 'legal doctrine', which is a qualified series of identical resolutions in similar cases pronounced by higher courts (the Constitutional Court acting as a 'Tribunal de Amparo', and the Supreme Court acting as a 'Tribunal de Casación') whose theses become binding for lower courts.
Haiti	Influenced by the Napoleonic Code
Honduras
Hungary
Iceland	Based on Germanic traditional laws and influenced by Medieval Norwegian and Danish laws.
Italy	Based on codified Roman law, with elements of the Napoleonic civil code; civil code of 1942 replaced the original one of 1865
Japan	Modeled after European (primarily German) civil law system. Japanese civil code of 1895.
Latvia	Largely influenced by Germany, medium influences from Russian and Soviet law.
Lebanon	Modeled after French civil law
Lithuania	Modeled after Dutch civil law
Luxembourg	Influenced by the Napoleonic Code
Macau	Based on the Portuguese strand of the continental tradition, itself much influenced by Germany; also influenced by the law of the PRC
Mexico	"The origins of Mexico's legal system are both ancient and classical, based on the Greek, Roman and French legal systems, and the Mexican system shares more in common with other legal systems throughout the world (especially those in Latin America and most of continental Europe)..." From: http://www.mexonline.com/lawreview.htm Jaime B. Berger Stender Attorney at Law author, Tijuana, B.C., Mexico
Mongolia	Civil Code of 2002 based on German BGB
Montenegro	First: the General Property Code for the Principality of Montenegro of 1888, written by Valtazar Bogišić. Present: the Law on Obligations of 2008.
Netherlands	Influenced by the Napoleonic Code
Norway	Scandinavian-German civil law. King Magnus VI the Lawmender unified the regional laws into a single code of law for the whole kingdom in 1274. This was replaced by Christian V's Norwegian Code of 1687.
Panama
Paraguay	The Paraguayan Civil Code in force since 1987 is largely influenced by the Napoleonic Code and the Argentinian Code
Peru	Based on civil law system; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction with reservations
Poland	The Polish Civil Code in force since 1965
Portugal	Influenced by the Napoleonic Code and later by the German Civil Law
Republic of China (Taiwan)	Codification derived from German BGB.
Romania	Based on the Napoleonic Code
Russia	Civil Law system descendant from Roman Law through Byzantine tradition. Heavily influenced by German and Dutch norms in 1700-1800's. Socialist-style modification in 1900's, and Continental European Law influences since 1990's.
São Tomé e Príncipe	Based on Portuguese civil law
Serbia	First: the Civil Code of Principality of Serbia of 1844, written by Jovan Hadžić, was influenced by the Austrian Civil Code (Allgemeines bürgerliches Gesetzbuch). Present: The Swiss civil law (Zivilgesetzbuch) was a model for the Law on Obligations of 1978.
Slovakia	Descended from Austro-Hungarian law, influenced by German (minor influence prior to 1945) and Soviet (major influence after World War II) law, reformed after the Velvet Revolution of 1989.
Slovenia	A Civil Law system influenced mostly by Germanic and Austro-Hungarian law systems
Spain	Influenced by the Napoleonic Code, it also has some elements of Spain's legal tradition, starting with the Siete Partidas, a major legislative achievement from the Middle Ages. That body of law remained more or less unchanged until the 19th century, when the first civil codes were drafted, merging both the Napoleonic style with the Castilian tradions.
Sweden	Scandinavian-German civil law. Like all Scandinavian legal systems, it is distinguished by its traditional character and for the fact that it did not adopt elements of Roman law. It is indeed worth mentioning that it assimilated very few elements of foreign laws whatsoever. It is also interesting that the Napoleonic Code had no influence in codification of law in Scandinavia. The historical basis of the law of Sweden, just as for all Nordic countries, is Old German law. Codification of the law started in Sweden during the 18th century, preceding the codifications of most other European countries. However, neither Sweden, nor any other Nordic state created a civil code of the kind of the Code Civil or the BGB.
Switzerland	The Zivilgesetzbuch of 1908 and 1912 (obligations; fifth book)
Turkey	Modeled after the Swiss civil law (Zivilgesetzbuch) of 1907; this has been a conscious choice of Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the modern Turkish state, in order to abolish the Islamic law (Sharia), aiming at westernizing the country
Ukraine	Civil Code of Ukraine of 2004
Uruguay
Uzbekistan	Represents an evolution of Soviet civil law. Overwhelmingly strong impact of the Communist legal theory is traceable.
Vietnam	Communist legal theory and French civil law

International Law Under the Constitution and Transnational Progressives

2010-06-15T18:41:00.000-07:00

The U.S. Constitution created the structure for a sovereign nation operating in an international system. It recognized the importance of international law, and left the content, interpretation, force and effect of international law to the three branches of the U.S. government

Properly understood, the creation and use of international law is an exercise of sovereignty which can advance U.S. interests and national security. It is a serious undertaking of importance to vital issues. How is this traditional conception a? ected by the activities of “transnational progressives,” who, according to some, place a greater premium on norms found in customary international law?

Th is article proceeds from the analytical principle that international law is subordinate to the Constitution. Th is construct has been described as the “Internal/Constitutionalist narrative.” It is in contrast to the “External/Internationalist narrative,” which would treat external public international law, tribunals and sources as the controlling forces, and the “Transnational/Intersystemic narrative,” which would look to multiple, interactive systems of law to guide interpretation and application of international law.

The Internal/Constitutional narrative is the only one that courts and government o? cials can seriously embrace. It was the construct used by the U.S. Supreme Court in the most important recent case on international law, Medillin v. Texas, and used by the parties and the U.S., as amicus curiae, to brief that case. It is worth observing, however, that unlike most courts and government o? cials, theorists of international law—chie? y professors and advocates in non-governmental organizations—tend to accept and promote the other narratives.

Th e Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding.

Th e second reference to international law appears in the Deﬁ ne and Punish Clause, which gives Congress the power to “deﬁ ne and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high seas, and Oﬀ ences against the Law of Nations.” The Law of Nations was the Founding-era term for what, in part, is known today as customary international law.

The species of international law with the greatest force and eﬀ ect is created by treaties, which are, in essence, contracts between sovereigns. When the U.S. enters into a treaty, negotiated by the President and ratiﬁ ed by two-thirds of the Senate, it makes commitments and undertakes obligations to the other signatory nations. Treaties can include agreements about adjudication of disputes concerning their interpretation and application.

Treaties are subject to limitations. Michael Stokes Paulsen has argued, for example, that the United States cannot agree to undertakings which are inconsistent with the Constitution. This is typically avoided by attaching reservations, understandings, and declarations to ratification. Next, perhaps the most important limitation is the system of checks and balances established by the Framers. Th e power to interpret and apply all international law, including treaties, is shared by the three branches of government, as distributed by the Constitution. To summarize Paulsen’s comprehensive analysis, the President has responsibility to interpret and apply international law consistent with his powers to serve as Commander-in-Chief and to conduct the nation’s foreign policy. Congress has responsibility pursuant to its powers to declare war, and to deﬁ ne and punish oﬀ enses against the law of nations by enacting legislation (or not enacting legislation) for carrying treaties into execution. Th e judiciary has responsibility to adjudicate cases presenting questions about treaties and customary international law which are properly before them.

There is a crucial distinction between international commitments made by a sovereign, and legal obligations that are enforceable as a matter of binding federal law in domestic U.S. courts. All treaties give rise to international commitments, but not all give rise to legal obligations that may be enforced in U.S. domestic courts. The distinction turns on whether a treaty is “self-executing.” A self-executing treaty is one that, upon Senate ratiﬁ cation, has automatic domestic eﬀ ect as federal law. A “non-self-executing” treaty only has domestic eﬀ ect as federal law upon the passage of further implementing legislation. Even self-executing treaties are understood not to create private rights or provide for a private cause of action in domestic courts, in the absence of express language to the contrary.

The U.S. Supreme Court clearly applied these principles in the recent case of Medillin v. Texas. That case followed an International Court of Justice (“ICJ”) judgment in a matter known as Case Concerning Avena and other Mexican Nationals (Mex. v. U.S.) (“Avena”).

The U.S. Supreme Court held that the ICJ judgment in Avena would not supersede state procedural rules in criminal cases, even though the President had issued a Memorandum directing the states to give eﬀ ect to the ICJ judgment.

Jose Medillin was a Mexican national who had lived in the U.S. since preschool. He became a member of the “Black and Whites” gang and was convicted in the brutal gang rape and murder of two girls, ages 14 and 16, and sentenced to death. He was not informed of his right, as a Mexican national, to notify the Mexican consulate of his detention. Th is right arises under a treaty the U.S. has entered into known as the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (“Vienna Convention”), and the Optional Protocol Concerning the Compulsory Settlement of Disputes to the Vienna Convention (“Optional Protocol”).

Under the U.N. Optional Protocol, resolution of disputes concerning the interpretation or application of the Vienna Convention is subject to the compulsory jurisdiction of the ICJ. Th e U.S. has withdrawn from the Optional Protocol, but had not done so at the time that the ICJ issued the judgment in Avena. Th e ICJ is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, and was established pursuant to the United Nations Charter (“U.N. Charter”), which itself is a treaty to which the U.S. is a signatory.

The State of Texas Court of Criminal Appeals declined to review and reconsider Medillin’s conviction. It dismissed his writ of habeus corpus, as an abuse of the writ, in view of Medillin’s failure to raise his Vienna Convention claim in a timely manner under Texas procedural default rules.

In Medillin v. Texas, the U.S. Supreme Court held that neither the ICJ judgment nor the Presidential Memorandum created federal law that could be enforced in U.S. domestic courts to preempt the procedural rules of Texas relating to habeus corpus petitions. In reaching this holding, the Court concluded that the U.N. Charter, the Vienna Convention, and the Optional Protocol did not create self-executing obligations eﬀ ective in U.S. courts. It reached that conclusion based on analysis of the text of the treaties, the executive’s construction (notwithstanding the Presidential Memorandum, as Chief Justice Roberts acknowledged in his majority opinion in Medillin, the U.S. has unfailingly taken the position that the Vienna Convention and Optional Protocol did not, in themselves, create domestically enforceable federal law), and the post-ratification understanding and practice of other signatories.

As for the Presidential Memorandum, the Court held that in the absence of implementing legislation by Congress, the President had no authority to turn a non-self executing treaty into a self-executing treaty. It further held that the President did not have the independent power to order Texas to comply by virtue of his foreign aﬀ airs authority to resolve disputes with foreign nations.

The import of Medillin v. Texas is clear. Unless a treaty or its implementing legislation expressly provides to the contrary, a judgment of the ICJ—or any other international tribunal—has no binding legal eﬀ ect in the U.S., and the President is without power to change that result.

Another important limitation on treaties is that Congress can always supersede or override them by enacting subsequent inconsistent legislation. Th is is known as the “last-in-time” rule. Th ere is no dispute that a subsequent congressional enactment trumps a treaty. Th ere is also a serious view that the structure of the Supremacy Clause—which mentions the Constitution, and “Laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof,” i.e., statutes, before Treaties—creates a hierarchy in which all statutes, even those enacted prior to a treaty, will control over a treaty.

A ﬁnal limitation, which is not universally accepted, is that pursuant to his foreign aﬀ airs power, the President may interpret, suspend, or repudiate a treaty in whole or in part.

Th e second potential source of international law, known today as customary international law, is in essence the common laws of nations. Customary international law is deﬁ ned as: (a) a widespread and uniform practice among nations that has ripened into a customary norm; (b) that nations follow out of a sense of legal obligation.

For a norm to be considered customary international law, it must have the widespread (but not necessarily universal) support of nations concerned with the issue it addresses, and must have continued long enough to give rise to at least an inference of recognition and acquiescence. Interim norms become customary international law once a large enough number of nations having an interest in them act in accordance with them. Th e assent of a nation is inferred by silence, except as to “consistent objectors.”

There is a special category of customary international law, jus cogens or “compelling law,” which is considered to consist of peremptory norms. Th e argument is that no nation is permitted to act contrary to those norms, whether or not it has acquiesced.
Although there is general acceptance of the concept of customary international law, beyond jus cogens, there is very little agreement on its content. Some argue that many malleable and questionable concepts should be considered customary international law binding in U.S. courts. For the most part, such arguments have been rejected.

In a case addressing customary international law known as Th e Paquete Habana, the U.S. Supreme Court began a passage with the phrase “international law is part of our law.” Th is is often embraced and quoted by progressive advocates. But the key portions of the passage limit the opening phrase, by explaining: “[W]here there is no treaty, and no controlling executive or legislative act or judicial decision, resort must be had to the customs and usages of civilized nations.”

In practice, customary international law is most relevant in U.S. domestic courts in cases brought under the Alien Tort Statute, which contains another Founding-era reference to the Law of Nations.

Since 1980, U.S. courts have permitted this statute to be used by non-U.S. citizens to sue private individuals and corporations for violations of international law. Th e U.S. Supreme Court has interpreted the statute only once, in Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain.

That case narrowed and reﬁ ned the range of principles that might constitute customary international law aﬀ ording a private cause of action under the ATS. Although it left open the possibility that new principles of customary international law might emerge, the Supreme Court took pains to urge judicial restraint, and gave strong indications that lower courts should limit rather than increase the emergence of new principles.

Within its proper sphere, international law is a positive instrument that can address areas of common concern among nations. Notably, as Michael Chertoﬀ has observed, through international law “states assume reciprocal obligations to contain transnational threats emerging from within their borders so as to prevent them from infringing on the peace and safety of fellow states around the world.” But tensions arise when “international law” is inaccurately described to include something other than ratiﬁ ed, implemented treaties, or the very few undeniably accepted principles of customary international law. Witness, for example, the failure of many countries to broadly protect free speech. Some speech that the U.S. protects under the 1st Amendment is considered by much of the rest of the world to be “heresy” or “blasphemy against Islam” and thus a violation of international human rights law.

Apart from application of customary international law, some support several proposed treaties that would present signiﬁ cant incursions into traditional notions of sovereignty and would raise federalism issues. In May 2009, the Obama Administration sought Senate advice and consent on ratiﬁ cation of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (“LOST”) and the United Nations Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (“CEDAW”). LOST mandates arbitration of maritime disputes before an international tribunal. CEDAW implicates gender quotas, pay standards, and parental leave, rules not presently embraced by domestic law. It also seems likely that the Obama Administration will seek ratiﬁ cation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which would aﬀ ect state discretion on issues such as juvenile justice, education, welfare, adoption, and custody and visitation.

One key arena for conﬂ icts concerning the interpretation and application of international law is litigation brought into the U.S. domestic courts. Advocates calling for application of an international norm will often (1) argue that treaty obligations broader than those undertaken upon ratiﬁ cation and execution are enforceable as a matter of U.S. domestic law; and (2) articulate the existence of broad and disputed principles of customary international law.

At times, courts are asked to (1) ignore U.S. reservations in treaty ratiﬁ cations; (2) give domestic eﬀ ect, as a matter of customary international law, to an alleged “consensus” of other signatories to a treaty that is contrary to U.S. reservations; and (3) grant the U.S. government powers on social and economic issues that, under the federal system in the U.S., historically reside with the states.

HISTORY OF THE MALAYSIAN CONSTITUTION

2010-06-10T05:46:00.000-07:00

A constitutional conference was held in London from 18 January to 6 February 1956 attended by a delegation from the Federation of Malaya, consisting of four representatives of the Rulers, the Chief Minister of the Federation Tunku Abdul Rahman and three other ministers, and also by the British High Commissioner in Malaya and his advisers.

The conference proposed the appointment of an independent commission to devise a constitution for a fully self-governing and independent Federation of Malaya. This proposal was accepted by Queen Elizabeth IIand the Malay Rulers.

Accordingly, the Reid Commission, consisting of constitutional experts from fellow Commonwealth countries and headed by Lord (William) Reid, a distinguished Lord-of-Appeal-in-Ordinary, was appointed by the Queen and the Malay Rulers.

The Constitution of Malaya was drafted based on the advice of the Reid Commission which conducted a study in 1956. The Constitution came into force on 27 August 1957. Formal independence was only achieved on 31 August however.

The constitutional machinery devised to bring the new constitution into force consisted of:

In the United Kingdom, the Federation of Malaya Independence Act 1957, together with the Orders in Council made under it.
The Federation of Malaya Agreement 1957 between the government of the United Kingdom and the government of the Federation of Malaya.
In the Federation, the Federal Constitution Ordinance 1957 by the Parliament.
In each of the Malay states, state enactments approving and giving force of law to the federal constitution.

The Constitution of Malaya (with significant amendments) was used as the basis for the Constitution of Malaysia when Malaya, Sabah, Sarawak, and Singapore merged to form Malaysia in 1963.

District Court Dismisses Claims in Nationwide Text Messaging Class Action

2010-06-05T16:59:00.000-07:00

Text messaging is a booming advanced wireless service. This service for using cellular telephones to send and receive short messages was first introduced by AT&T in 2002 but was quickly launched by other wireless providers. Monthly text messages have soared from 4.7 billion during December 2005, to 9.8 billion during December 2006, all the way up to 48.1 billion in December 2008. In 2008 alone, some one trillion text messages were sent and received. This business has been the target of class-action litigation. But owing to a failure to allege facts sufficient to state a claim of unlawful conspiracy, a recent federal trial court ruling put the brakes on a nationwide class-action antitrust suit alleging collusive per-message price-fixing by all major wireless carriers.

Consumers typically purchase text messaging services either on a per-message basis or through a bundled plan. Bundled plans can include either set allotments of text messages or unlimited amounts. Moreover, since 2005, wireless carriers’ “prices for other wireless services, such as voice calling and data transmission, decreased.” Nonetheless, per-message prices for text messaging have become the target of congressional inquiry and a Department of Justice investigation that recently concluded without any action being taken. But permessage prices are also the subject of a sweeping class action lawsuit: In Re Text Messaging Antitrust Litigation.

Over a dozen separate lawsuits against the four national wireless carriers—AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon—were transferred to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois by the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation. Plainti? s’ attorneys ? led suit on behalf of “all those who purchased text messaging services on a fee-per-message basis from defendants or their predecessors, subsidiaries, or a? liates from January 1, 2005 to the present.”

At issue in the district court’s December 2009 ruling was the defendants’ Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss the plainti? s’ claims that all four national wireless carriers violated Section 1 of the Sherman Act. Horizontal price-? xing is per se illegal under antitrust law. Plainti? s’ alleged that the defendants colluded to ? x prices for per-message text messaging services.

PRINCIPLE OF UNIVERSALITY OF HUMAN RIGHTS

2010-06-05T06:15:00.000-07:00

The principle of universality of human rights is the cornerstone of international human rights law. This principle, as first emphasized in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights in 1948, has been reiterated in numerous international human rights conventions, declarations, and resolutions. The 1993 Vienna World Conference on Human Rights, for example, noted that it is the duty of States to promote and protect all human rights and fundamental freedoms, regardless of their political, economic and cultural systems.

Human rights are rights inherent to all human beings, whatever our nationality, place of residence, sex, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, language, or any other status. We are all equally entitled to our human rights without discrimination. These rights are all interrelated, interdependent and indivisible.

Universal human rights are often expressed and guaranteed by law, in the forms of treaties, customary international law , general principles and other sources of international law. International human rights law lays down obligations of Governments to act in certain ways or to refrain from certain acts, in order to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms of individuals or groups.

All human rights are indivisible, whether they are civil and political rights, such as the right to life, equality before the law and freedom of expression; economic, social and cultural rights, such as the rights to work, social security and education , or collective rights, such as the rights to development and self-determination, are indivisible, interrelated and interdependent. The improvement of one right facilitates advancement of the others. Likewise, the deprivation of one right adversely affects the others.

Non-discrimination is a cross-cutting principle in international human rights law. The principle is present in all the major human rights treaties and provides the central theme of some of international human rights conventions such as the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.

The principle applies to everyone in relation to all human rights and freedoms and it prohibits discrimination on the basis of a list of non-exhaustive categories such as sex, race, colour and so on. The principle of non-discrimination is complemented by the principle of equality, as stated in Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.”

Human rights entail both rights and obligations. States assume obligations and duties under international law to respect, to protect and to fulfil human rights. The obligation to respect means that States must refrain from interfering with or curtailing the enjoyment of human rights. The obligation to protect requires States to protect individuals and groups against human rights abuses. The obligation to fulfil means that States must take positive action to facilitate the enjoyment of basic human rights. At the individual level, while we are entitled our human rights, we should also respect the human rights of others.

CIVIL RIGHTS (Fixing the Civil Rights Commission)

2010-06-04T22:35:00.000-07:00

Several dozen advocacy organizations have recently promoted a high-profile proposal to “fix” the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Their goal is to change the name of the commission to “The U.S. Commission on Civil and Human Rights” and to authorize the new commission to monitor U.S. compliance with international human rights treaties. At the same time, the current commissioners would be terminated, and the President would be authorized to appoint a new slate subject only to senate confirmation. The primary advocate of this plan is none other than former commission chair Mary Frances Berry, who developed the concept in her 2009 book, And Justice for All: The United States Commission on Civil Rights and the Continuing Struggle for Freedom in America. Popular with Democratic congressional staff, the Berry plan has been actively promoted by a large coalition led by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the American Constitution Society, and a new group formed precisely to advance this proposal, the “Campaign for a New Domestic Human Rights Agenda".

Established by President Dwight David Eisenhower under the Civil Rights Act of 1957, the Commission is an independent, bi-partisan fact-ﬁ nding agency. Charged with investigating a wide range of discriminatory conduct, but given no enforcement powers, the agency has long functioned as a research institution or think tank, issuing reports and railing from the bully pulpit.

During its ﬁ rst quarter century, the Commission probed racial and ethnic bigotry in the United States, laying the groundwork for landmark legislation such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Fair Housing Act, and the Voting Rights Act. All along, powerful ﬁ gures have tried to derail its investigations, which have often provoked strong outcry among those charged with bias. For example, John and Robert Kennedy connived to obstruct the commission from undertaking ﬁ eld hearings in Mississippi during the early 1960’s for fear that this would alienate or embarrass Southern Democrats in Congress. Th e Commission’s courageous work during this period earned it the title of “conscience of the nation on civil rights.”

For much of its second quarter century, the Commission’s record was much spottier. During this period, marked by Commissioner Mary Frances Berry’s long tenure, the Commission was known instead as a “Mickey Mouse agency” and as “Little Hanoi on the Potomac.” Berry gained notoriety for her support for Maoist educational and Soviet social policy, as well as her insistence that civil rights laws do not apply to white men. Late in Ms. Berry’s tenure, the General Accounting Oﬃ ce reported that the Commission was “an agency in disarray” lacking even “basic management controls.” Berry fought and lost a legal battle to prevent one of President George W. Bush’s appointees from being seated to the Commission. When her last term expired, Berry initially threatened to stay on longer, disputing the executive and judicial branches’ interpretation of the period of commissioner terms.

In December 2004, conservatives were appointed to a majority of the Commission’s seats (including Dr. Berry’s former seat) as well as to the oﬃ ce of Staﬀ Director. In 2007, Th e Wall Street Journal lauded the agency, stating that it “deserves a medal for good governance” after achieving back-to-back clean ﬁ nancial audits. At the same time, the Commission refocused its agenda on a wide range of topics important to conservative civil rights advocates, such as “religious freedom, school choice, Title IX reform, voter fraud, the impact of economic regulation on minority employment, and the impact of illegal immigration on black employment.” Th e Commission has also addressed, during this period, various other topics not generally associated with the conservative civil rights agenda, such as the misdiagnosis of racial minorities for special education, discrimination against Native Americans in border towns, and the eﬀ ectiveness of historically black colleges and universities.

More controversially, perhaps, the Commission also issued a series of important reports during this period which challenge an array of assumptions concerning the governmental application of racial preferences, e.g., that racial diversity produces demonstrable educational beneﬁ ts; that preferences actually help black students; that the American Bar Association’s diversity standards comply with federal law; that the Akaka Bill on native Hawaiian sovereignty does not amount to racial balkanization; that the Justice Department increases re-segregation when it releases Southern school districts from desegregation orders; that federal agencies comply with their constitutional obligation to seriously consider race-neutral alternatives before resorting to preferences in government contracts; and that the temporary provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 are as necessary today as when they were ﬁ rst enacted.

As two conservative Commissioners observed, the Commission’s new agenda asks this question of racially preferential governmental policies: “Should the principle of non-discrimination be temporarily sacrificed in the hope that such a sacriﬁ ce will, in the long run, help us become the society of equal opportunity that we all aspire to?”Th at is to say, the Commission has challenged the underpinnings of federal aﬃ rmative action policy at its roots and in many of its branches.

Most recently, the Commission has repeatedly prodded the Justice Department to explain why it dismissed its complaint against the New Black Panther Party and three of its members after a Philadelphia federal judge entered default judgments against the Black Panthers. In this case, the Black Panthers were videotaped holding nightsticks and hurling racial epithets and threats at voters during the last presidential election. The Commission’s persistent requests, backed by subpoenas, have clearly hit a nerve, as the Obama Justice Department has refused to comply with the Commission’s subpoenas despite a statutory obligation to cooperate. In another important example, the Commission’s conservative members sent a public letter to President Obama and the congressional leadership detailing the racially discriminatory aspects of the Senate health care bill.

In light of this history, there are logical political reasons why change would be sought. The Commission’s last authorization expired on September 30, 1996. Since then, the Commission has only survived as a creature of annual appropriations and inertia. Th is fact provides the opening for the agency’s congressional critics to “ﬁ x” it during the course of reauthorization legislation.

Mary Frances Berry’s idea is that “the commission could be converted into a human rights commission devoted to the idea that all people have a right to be treated fairly because of their humanity, as suggested by former commission chair and Notre Dame president Father Th eodore Hesburgh during his tenure.” To the extent that the “ﬁ x” would substantively change the Commission (apart from authorizing President Obama to wipe out the current conservative commissioners), it is by providing that the new Commission “could also monitor U.S. compliance with the international human rights covenants to which we are a party and encourage adoption of those we have not approved.”

Berry proposes this fix in her 2009 history of the Commission, And Justice for All: Th e United States Commission on Civil Rights and the Continuing Struggle for Freedom in America, and in various subsequent pieces. Given Berry’s controversial tenure at the Commission, it is not surprising that the critical reception of her treatise has not been entirely kind. As Samuel G. Freedman observed in his New York Times book review, Ms. Berry “may have been the wrong person” to provide a dispassionate account of the Commission’s history. Yet part of her book that has received traction has been her suggestion to replace the current Civil Rights Commission with a new U.S. Commission on Human and Civil Rights.

Th e Leadership Conference Report, which echoes Dr. Berry’s proposal, argues that “changing the commission’s name to reﬂ ect the human rights dimension of its work would make more explicit its obligation to examine U.S. compliance with these international treaties as part of its existing mandate to examine compliance with civil rights laws.” The Leadership Conference adds that “a United States Commission on Civil and Human Rights could help bolster the United States’ leadership role in protecting human rights around the world.”

PRINCIPLES OF CONSTITUTIONAL CONSTRUCTION

2010-06-04T21:18:00.000-07:00

Constitutional interpretation, or constitutional construction, the term more often used by the Founders, is the process by which meanings are assigned to words in a constitution, to enable legal decisions to be made that are justified by it. Some scholars distinguish between "interpretation" — assigning meanings based on the meanings in other usages of the terms by those the writers and their readers had probably read, and "construction" — inferring the meaning from a broader set of evidence, such as the structure of the complete document from which one can discern the function of various parts, discussion by the drafters or ratifiers during debate leading to adoption ("legislative history"), the background of controversies in which the terms were used that indicate the concerns and expectations of the drafters and ratifiers, alternative wordings and their meanings accepted or rejected at different points in development, and indications of meanings that can be inferred from what is not said, among other methods of analysis.

There is also a question of whether the meanings should be taken from the public meanings shared among the literate populace, the private meanings used among the drafters and ratifiers that might not have been widely shared, or the public legal meanings of terms that were best known by more advanced legal scholars of the time. Most of the U.S. Constitution appears to have been written to be understood by ordinary people of that era, although people then were much more literate in the law than people are now. However, many of its words and phrases are fairly deep legal terms that were only well understood by a few of the legally educated Founders, even though the general population probably had a rudimentary understanding of them.

There is a problem with the "original public meaning" formulation, because while the meanings of constitutional terms were "public" in the sense that they were not "private" or "secret", they were not necessarily familiar to ordinary people of the era. More accurate would be "legally educated and still learning public meaning", because many of the Founders themselves used terms that they had to research to find the meanings of. An example of this can be seen in the comments by Dickenson in the Federal Convention Aug. 29, 1787, about ex post facto only applying to criminal cases, after researching the topic in Blackstone's Commentaries. So since we can presume the Founders mostly agreed on the writers they considered authoritative on legal usages, we can reasonably refer to the writings of those other writers to find the meanings the Founders intended even if the Founders themselves had not yet done the research to fully master the concepts.

For constitutional terms the denotata are not empirical objects so much as ideas, that is, mental models, that do not, for the most part, have the advantage of some formal scientific models of being representable in mathematical or computer formalisms that we can examine externally. In particular, they are ideas that existed in the minds of persons long dead, so we have to develop mental models of their mental models ("theory of mind") based on the things they read and wrote. That can be done. The verification comes with being able to predict what one of them will say in a writing one hasn't read yet. Becoming adept at doing so can reassure one that one has "gotten into their heads". But that is not something one can demonstrate to others.

This leads to the admonition that the English used in the Constitution and other legal documents of the 18th century should be read as a foreign language, putting aside today's meanings of what seem to be the same words we use today, and attempting to decode the meanings from various clues we can find. This is not only wise for 18th century English, but for almost any communications, even among people who communicate with one another daily, because no two people mean precisely the same thing by the same words on every occasion. When both speaker and listener are alive they are able to interrogate one another to arrive at a common meaning, but when the author is dead we have to find evidence in other things he or his correspondents wrote.

Constitutional controversies are about whether an official act is consistent with, and authorized by, a constitution or constitutional statute or court decision. Since a constitution is a law, and the supreme law within its domain, and authorizes statutes and other official acts which have a textual expression, the principles of constitutional interpretation are essentially the same as the principles of statutory or judicial interpretation.

Most legal scholars recognize six main methods of judicial decisionmaking: textual, historical, functional, doctrinal, prudential, equitable, and natural, although they may differ on what each includes, and there is some overlap among them.

Textual. Decision based on the actual words of the written law, if the meaning of the words is unambiguous. Since a law is a command, then it must mean what it meant to the lawgiver, and if the meaning of the words used in it have changed since it was issued, then textual analysis must be of the words as understood by the lawgiver, which for a constitution would be the understanding of the ratifying convention or, if that is unclear, of the drafters. Some Latin maxims: A verbis legis non est recedendum. From the words of the law there is not any departure. 5 Coke 118. Noscitur à sociis. Meaning of words may be ascertained by associated words. 3 T.R. 87.
Historical. Decision based less on the actual words than on the understanding revealed by analysis of the history of the drafting and ratification of the law, for constitutions and statutes, sometimes called its legislative history, and for judicial edicts, the case history. A textual analysis for words whose meanings have changed therefore overlaps historical analysis. It arises out of such Latin maxims as Animus hominis est anima scripti. Intention is the soul of an instrument. 3 Bulst. 67.
Functional. Also called structural. Decision based on analysis of the structures the law constituted and how they are apparently intended to function as a coherent, harmonious system. A Latin maxim is Nemo aliquam partem recte intelligere potest antequam totum perlegit. No one can properly understand a part until he has read the whole. 3 Coke Rep. 59.
Doctrinal. Decision based on prevailing practices or opinions of legal professionals, mainly legislative, executive, or judicial precedents, according to the meta-doctrine of stare decisis, which treats the principles according to which court decisions have been made as not merely advisory but as normative. Some Latin maxims are: Argumentum à simili valet in lege. An argument from a like case avails in law. Coke, Littleton, 191. Consuetudo et communis assuetudo ... interpretatur legem scriptam, si lex sit generalis. Custom and common usage ... interpret the written law, if it be general. Jenk. Cent. 273. Cursus curiæ est lex curiæ. The practice of the court is the law of the court. 3 Buls. 53. Judiciis posterioribus fides est adhibenda. Credit is to be given to the latest decisions. 13 Coke 14. Res judicata pro veritate accipitur. A thing adjudicated is received as true. Coke, Littleton, 103.
Prudential. Decision based on factors external to the law or interests of the parties in the case, such as the convenience of overburdened officials, efficiency of governmental operations, avoidance of stimulating more cases, or response to political pressure. One such consideration, avoidance of disturbing a stable body of practices, is also the main motivation for the doctrinal method. It also includes such considerations as whether a case is "ripe" for decision, or whether lesser or administrative remedies have first been exhausted. A Latin maxim is Boni judicis est lites dirimere. The duty of a good judge is to prevent litigation. 4 Coke 15.
Equitable. Also called ethical. Decision based on an innate sense of justice, balancing the interests of the parties, and what is right and wrong, regardless of what the written law might provide. Often resorted to in cases in which the facts were not adequately anticipated or provided for by the lawgivers. Some scholars put various balancing tests of interests and values in the prudential category, but it works better to distinguish between prudential as balancing the interests and values of the legal system from equitable as balancing the interests and values of the parties. It arises out of the Latin maxim, Æquitas est perfecta quædam ratio quæ jus scriptum interpretatur et emendat; nulla scriptura comprehensa, sed sola ratione consistens. Equity is a sort of perfect reason which interprets and amends written law; comprehended in no code, but consistent with reason alone. Coke, Littleton, 24.
Natural. Decision based on what is required or advised by the laws of nature, or perhaps of human nature, and on what is physically or economically possible or practical, or on what is actually likely to occur. This has its origin in such ancient Latin maxims as: Jura naturæ sunt immutabilia. The laws of nature are unchangeable. Jacob. 63. Impossibilium nulla obligatio est. There is no obligation to do impossible things. D. 50, 17, 185. Lex non cogit ad impossibilia. The law does not compel the impossible. Hob. 96. Lex neminem cogit ad vana seu inutilia peragenda. The law requires no one to do vain or useless things. 5 Coke 21. Legibus sumptis desinentibus, lege naturæ utendum est. Laws of the state failing, we must act by the law of nature. 2 Rol. Rep. 98.

Of these, only the first three, textual, historical, and functional, are methods of interpreting or constructing the written constitution of government, and the historical and functional methods may be more a matter of construction than interpretation. The last, natural, is construction (not interpretation) of the unwritten constitution of nature, or the unwritten constitution of society, which form a hierarchy of authority, with the constitution of nature superior to the constitution of society, and the constitution of society superior to the written constitution of government. The doctrinal, prudential, and equitable methods are not interpretion or construction of any of these constitutions, although judges often claim they are. There is an misguided tendency among modern judges to misrepresent what are essentially prudential or equitable decisions as constitutional constructions. Too many lawyers are complicit in this by casting what are essentially prudential or equitable arguments into constitutional terms. There is nothing inherently wrong with making prudential or equitable decisions. The U.S. Constitution confers both law and equity jurisdictions on federal courts, as do the state constitutions. The problem comes with treating such decisions as establishing precedents, especially binding ones. It is one thing to treat a decision as a precedent that clarifies some ambiguity in the constitution, but quite another to essentially insert a prudential or equitable decision into the constitution as a kind of amendment. Such decisions must not conflict with constitutions or constitutional statutes, but often do. Doctrinal and prudential decisions are more troublesome. The doctrinal method may be compatible with the written constitution of government if it merely involves clarifications of ambiguities in the original text, but not when those doctrines depart from original legal understanding, as they sometimes do.

The prudential method may be justifiable as necessary to handle large caseloads, but often neglect to render justice in particular cases, especially when they involve avoidance of controversy rather than a desire to settle all issues brought before the court.

Within these methods, we can, by study of the writings of the Founders, and the writings they read, elicit such principles for interpreting or constructing the Constitution for the United States as the following:

The Constitution is the written document. Although it may be considered to include the understandings of its words as of the time of ratification, it does not include the subsequent body of practices or precedents upon which constitutional decisions might be based, which may or may not be consistent with it, or authorized by it. The written document refers to itself as "this Constitution", and provides for only four methods by which it may be amended, all of which apply only to the written document.
The authority for provisions of the Constitution is the ratifications and state admissions. Current consent or acquiescence, or lack thereof, to the Constitution or any practice, does not affect the original constitutive acts, and has no authority, unless expressed through adoption of amendments as provided in Article V.
Provisions of the Constitution are mutually consistent. There are no internal logical contradictions, except that a provision of an amendment inconsistent with a previous provision supersedes that provision.
None of the words are without force and effect, except those superseded by amendments, unless such amendments are repealed. Except for the statement of purpose in the preamble, every word was intended by the Framers to be legally normative, and not just advisory, declaratory, aspirational, or exhortatory. Verba intelligi ut aliquid operantur debent. Words should be interpreted to give them some effect.
Rights and powers are complementary. Every right recognized by the Constitution is an immunity, that is, a right against a positive action by government, and is equivalent to a restriction on delegated powers. Conversely, every delegated power is a restriction on immunities. An immunity may be expressed either as a declaration of the right, or as a restriction on powers.
There are no redundancies within the original unamended Constitution. However, amendments may be alternative ways of expressing equivalent content in the original unamended Constitution or previous amendments. More specifically, the Bill of Rights added no new content not implicit in the original unamended Constitution, except the twenty dollar rule of the Seventh Amendment.
The Constitution was intended to define a functionally complete and harmonious system. That does not mean, however, that all powers anyone might think the nation or any branch, level, office or department should have, were actually delegated.
Original "intent" is functional, not motivational. The private motives of the Framers or Founders are irrelevant and largely unknowable, and likely to have been diverse. The common law rule of interpretation understood by the Founders was to discern the functional role of elements of the law, not the private purposes of the lawgivers.
The ratification debates are the best evidence of original understanding. The arguments of those opposed to ratification are not just the positions of the losers in the debates, which some might dismiss as not indicative of original understanding. As the debates proceeded, understandings evolved and clarified, and positions changed. Most opponents were satisfied by adoption of a Bill of Rights, and by assurances by the proponents concerning how the words of the Constitution would be interpreted, and those assurances must be considered part of the original understanding. That means that a construction to which the more significant "anti-federalists" would object is almost certainly incorrect.
Powers are narrow, rights broad. The entire theme and tenor of the ratification debates was that delegated powers were to be interpreted as strictly as possible, consistent with the words, and rights as broadly as possible, with the presumption in favor of the right, and the burden of proof on those claiming a power. Potestas stricte interpretatur. A power is strictly interpreted. In dubiis, non præsumitur pro potentia. In cases of doubt, the presumption is not in favor of a power.
Delegated powers cannot be subdelegated. The U.S. Constitution vests all legislative powers in Congress, and all judicial powers in the Supreme Court and inferior courts, except as specifically expressed. Executive branch officials may subdelegate but must remain responsible for the actions of their subordinates. There can be no authority exercised that is not accountable through constitutional officials.Delegata potestas non potest delegari. A delegated power cannot be delegated. 9 Inst. 597.
The power to regulate is not the power to prohibit all modalities of something. It is only the power to issue prescriptions to "make regular", enforceable only by deprivations of property or privileges, not of life, limb, or liberty. There must always be some modality that is not prohibited.
Implied powers are only to "carry into Execution" an expressed power and not to do whatever is necessary to achieve the intent for which a power might be exercised. Delegation of a power is delegation of the right to make a certain kind of effort, not to do whatever is necessary to get a desired outcome.
There can be no common law crimes. They are in conflict with the prohibitions on ex post facto laws and bills of attainder.
Rights may not be disabled or unduly burdened by legislative or executive process. "Due" process is judicial only, involving the granting of a petition to disable a right of the defendant, with the burden of proof on the plaintiff or prosecutor, and with the defendant having at least those minimum protections that prevailed during the Founding. with similar disablements having similar standards of proof and protection.
There is no right without a remedy. Ubi jus ibi remedium. There must always be an accessible forum in which a complainant has oyer and terminer for any petition.
The Founders were learning. "Original meaning" is not just about what the Founders consciously meant at the moment of ratification, but includes what they would discover with further study of the legal tradition they invoked in the words they chose. Thus, they referred to authors like Blackstone and Coke when they were unsure what they meant, and so must we.
Early practice indicative but not dispositive. Early practice by the Founders may provide evidence of their aspirations in the words they chose, but should not be regarded as perfect expressions of their intent. Practice can represent compromise with practical concerns and may lag behind the ideals contained in the words.
Mental models of mental models. Each of us has a mental model of the world that includes a model of the mental models others have of the world. Communication is possible only to the extent that our mental models of the mental models of others are somehow accurate or congruent. When a lawgiver issues a law, a command to others for future compliance, he is relying on others to understand his words the way he does, and those others are relying on him to use words with the meanings they have for them. But words are an imperfect way to convey meanings, and if the recipient of the command cannot interrogate the lawgiver for his meaning, he must try to improve his mental model of the lawgiver's mental model by such means as learning to accurately predict what the lawgiver will write about matters the recipient has not previously read.
Find the right level of abstraction. It was common for the Founders to use somewhat more concrete words to mean broader principles. Thus, "press" or "arms" is not limited to the technology of the time, but refers to the general function they served. "Militia" does not mean merely those legally obliged to respond to an official call-up, but defense activity generally.

The Constitution Court
Of The Republic of Indonesian

RULE OF LAW ACCORDING TO THE EUROPEAN (CIVIL LAW) CONCEPTION

2009-11-21T00:49:00.000-08:00

The modern European (Rechtstaat), or state based on Rule of Law, rests on Roman legal procedures but also on the tradisional of an unique system of checks and balances created in the late medieval period. This system has been influenced by a growth of the nation of the immunity of certain groups and persons from the power of the ruler (feudal king), along with the conception of the right of resistance to unjust authority and that of contract as a mutual engagement freely undertaken by free persons, derived form the feudal relation of vassalage.

FRENCH CONCEPTION
The development of the rule of law conception in France can be characterized by two peculiar features of the Frecch concept :

No French term existed as an equivalent of the term used to represent the conception of rule of law until the fifth republik (1958)
France lacked real constitutionalism, as the Frech system did not very much revere constitutions and remedies connected to it. Between 1789 and 1959, France had 16 different constitutions (of which 5 in the revolutionary years between 1971 and 1804).

Instead of the supremacy of the constitution, the French adhered to the supremacy of parlianment (legislative sovereignty) with the legislative power as the major power of the state. It was only after 1977 that a new conception of Etat de droit emerged, with the introduction of a Conseil constitutionnel, a French constitutional court, as one of the main innovations of the constitution of the fifth republic (1958).

GERMAN CONCEPTION
Also in Germany, rule of law at first meant Gesetzesstaat, in as accordance with the thin conception of formal legality. The term Rechtstaats was first used by Johan Wilhelm Placidus in his Literatur der Staatslehre. Ein Versuch. But before the second world war, the German legal system had itself more the character of a Gesetzesstaats of rule of law with its main focus on the principle of legality in the sense of administrative action to be submitted to law (legal rules).

Since 1949, when under the influence of the allied forces the new Grundgesetz or Basic Law (constitution) came into force, Germany has a rulr of law in the sense of formal legality and democracy, and a constitutional court that controls whether statutory law and judicial decisions are in accordance with the constitutions and the fundamental rights mentioned in it.

DUTCH CONCEPTION
As in France and Germany, the Ducth rule of law has fore a very long time stressed the importance of parliamentary sovereignty more than constitutional sovereignty with its a accent of human rights. Until now there is no constitutional court in the Netherlands and the juges is forbidden to evaluate whether a statute is in accordance with the constitution.

RULE OF LAW ACCORDING TO THE AMERICAN CONCEPTION GENERAL REMARKS

2009-11-03T01:07:00.000-08:00

Unlike typical European constitution, the basic charter of the United States says nothing about a commitment to the rule of law. The closest constitutional analogue is the phrase prohibiting the deprivation of 'life, liberty, or property without due process of law'. This concept of due process has become, in American law, the most vigilant guarantor of the set of procedural rights and remedies that are available to individual citizens, which we usually mean when we refer to the rule of law.

The (sometimes forced) imposition of the American model of the rule of law all over the world should not make us blind for reality. In the United States itself there is a debate going on about the nature, merits and limitations of this spicimen of the rule of law, which discussion is often glossed over in the universal propaganda.

RULE OF LAW ACCORDING TO THE ENGLISH (ANGLO SAXON) CONCEPTION

2009-08-14T05:18:00.000-07:00

An element in the history of the Rule of Law following the English conception is the fact, different from other states and legal systems, at the end of the Middle Ages, there already existed in England a centuries-old legal tradition, with its own system of education and body of knowledge, which made that courts could indepently withstand attempts at regal interference.

An increasingly specialized and autonomous legal profession administered law and took care of its regular implementation with courts established at the center of this institutional complex and judges who served as "the guardians of and spokesman for the law".

Licence of Copyrights

2009-07-07T23:30:00.000-07:00

Copyrights is exclusive rights to receiver or creator the right to announce or multiply its creation or allow for that without lessening demarcations according to law and regulation.

Creator is a or some people by together which of its inspiration bear a creation pursuant to ability of mind, imagine, handiness, poured membership or skill in the form of typical and have the character of person.

Right owner create is creator as owner of copyrights, or the abandonee side of creator, or other party accepting furthermore belonging of sides.

License is permit given by right owner create or related right owner to other party to announce and/or multiply its creation or related rights product of him with certain conditions.

Linsensi can in form of agreement agreed on by creator or receiver of rights with perpetrator (actor, singer, musician, dancer, and others), voice record produser, and broadcasting institute.

Islamic Law

2009-06-20T20:10:00.000-07:00

Concept refert to a state which al-Qur'an, Sunnah and human reason work together and together constitute the Islamic. The nomocracy Islam can be characterized of principles. These principles are are mentioned in the Koran. The character of the Islamic state and called it a "theocracy". In Islam equality is prominent. That's "nomocracy" is a far better name, wherein the power is held by the law which comes from Allah. Nomocracy Islam as rule of Islamic Law.

In the Indonesian history, Muslims have often felt subordinated by the old artistocracies who were only superficially Muslim. Devout Muslims therefore regarded the Rule of Law and especially its emphasis on social equality as a corrective continuiting influence of hierarchy and privilege of former and current elites.

Presently, and also abroad, moderate Islamic Indonesian intellectuals appear to play a wholesome and guinding role in politic and particularly in the discussion on the future of Indonesian rule of law.

CUSTOMARY LAW (Adat Law)

2009-06-07T00:04:00.000-07:00

Like common law, adat law is not based on codes or law books but on presedents and general rules of what so called adat communities feel as just and fair (equity). Another similiarity with common law is that it applies to everybody, from the highest to the lowest strata in society.

Is adat law in acoordande with the rule of law ? Not with fromal legality, we presume, at least not in the general sense of written law that is general, public, prospective and sufficiently clear. But if we regard it from a more substantive perspective, as a corpus of rules of which the adat society is suffiently conscious and which are to be considered as representative of the common view on what law should be, the answer could be more variegated and even positive.

In adat law we can make a rough distinction between law to be spoken by adat gremia of the community itself and the decisions of hudges from outside who are appointed by the central government. The first group, which stems from the community itself, has a good overview of the living law in that community. The second group can only rely on rules and opinions on fairnes and legal consciousness provided by advisors from the community itself and/or rules distilled and written down for the respective adat communities by e.g. Van Vollenhoven and his disciples. Are the latter still valid ? We don't think so because adat law is a living and always developing, instrument and Van Vollenhoven has been dead for a very long time.

As to elements of formal legality as indentified abovre, one could argue that the local influence of the deciding adat gremia may sometimes be too strong to speak of "political liberty", in the sense of sufficient limitations on the influence of the "sovereign".

RULE OF LAW

2009-05-21T23:31:00.000-07:00

What is 'Rule of Law'? It is not possible to give an unequivocal answer to this question. Concepts of Rule of Law and Rechtsstaatb have varied from one place to the other and over time and no one has ever come up with a definition generally agreed upon. As a result there often is a profound degree of misunderstanding between legal scholars and others when discussing 'Rule of Law'.

Cenceptions of Rule of Law can be devided into two general types, thin and thick. A thin conception stresses the formal or instrumental aspects of Rule of Law - those features that any legal system allgedly must posses to function effectively as a system of laws, regardless of whether the legal system is part of a democratic or non-democratic society, capitalis, liberal or theocratic.

A thick or substantive conception of Rule of Law, on the other hand, is characterized by Peerenboom as a state with the basic elements of a thin Rule of Law state plus elements of political morality 'such as particular economic arrangements (free-market capitalism, central planning,'Asia developmental state' or other varieties of capitalism), forms of government (democratic, socialist, soft authoritarian) or conceptions of human rights (liberatian, classical liberal, social welfare liberal, communitarian, 'Asia values' etc).

TWO ASPECTS OF THE TERM "LAW"

2009-05-02T22:14:00.000-07:00

At the outset of our endeavour, we want to draw attention to two different meanings of the term 'law' itself. The different views on rule of law in the countries under examination can be partly traced back to terminology. Most European languages have two different words for the English and the American word 'law'. The first term has the meaning of the word 'Gezetz' in German, 'Loi' in French, 'Wet' in Dutch, 'Ley' in Spanish (compare 'Undang-undang' in Indonesia), In all those languages there also exists another term for 'law', which expresses a higher nation of law and is reflected in the word 'Recht' in German and Dutch, 'Droit' in French, 'Derecho' in Spanish ('Hukum' in Indonesia).

This Law in a higher sense is related to the rights of 'Human Rights' in the sense of higher rights or principal rights.

Hence we can derive two different manifestation/meaning for the Rule of Law :

Rule of law in the narrow, which means a state based on the principle that the government is bound by rules that have been written and announced beforehand (compare hereafter the thin conception of rule of law).
Rule of law in broad sense, which means an ideal for good government with in it the dimension of good Law or Right. In this concept great empasis is being laid on the constitution and on judicial review (compare hereafter the thick conception of rule of law).

PRINSIP-PRINSIP NEGARA HUKUM (rule of law)

2009-04-29T18:27:00.000-07:00

Negara hukum adalah negara yang menempatkan hukum pada tempat yang tertinggi, yang meliputi perlindungan terhadap hak asasi manusia, pemisahan kekuasaan, setiap tindakan pemerintah didasarkan pada peraturan perundang-undangan, dan adanya peradilan yang berdiri sendiri.

Prinsip-prinsip negara hukum meliputi hal-hal sebagai berikut :

pengakuan dan perlindungan terhadap hak asasi manusia yang mengandung persamaan dalam bidang politik, hukum, sosial, ekonomi dan kebudayaan;
peradilan yang bebas dan tidak memihak serta tidak dipengaruhi oleh sesuatu kekuasaan atau kekuatan apa pun, dan
legalitas dalam arti hukum.

Law state is state placing law at highest place, which cover protection to human rights, dissociation of power, every government action relied on law and regulation, and existence of selfsupporting jurisdiction.

Principles law state cover the followings:

protection and confession to pregnant human right of equation in the field of politics, law, social, economic an culture;
unbiased and free jurisdiction and also do not bother by something strenght or power anything, and
legality in law meaning.

ARTI NEGARA DILIHAT DARI EMPAT ASPEK (meaning state seen from four aspect)

2009-03-26T06:29:00.000-07:00

Negara sebagai organisasi kekuasaan : bahwa negara ialah alat masyarakat yang mempunyai kekuasaan mutlak untuk mengatur hubungan antar manusia dalam masyarakat tersebut. Pada hakekatnya merupakan suatu organisasi kekuasaan yang menyatukan kelompok manusia yang kemudian disebut bangsa. Unsur terpenting (primer) dari negara adalah oeganisasi kekuasaan, sedangkan bangsa merupakan unsur sekunder.

Negara sebagai organisasi politik : bahwa negara merupakan integrasi kekuasaan politik. Negara berfungsi sebagai alat yang mengatur hubungan-hubungan manusia dan menertibkan gejala-gejala dalam masyarakat untuk mencapai tujuan masyarakat tersebut.

Negara sebagai organisasi kesusilaan : bahwa individu memiliki kemerdekaan dalam kehidupan bermasyarakat. Negara sebagai organisasi kesusilaan yang timbul karena terjadinya perpaduan individual. Negara merupakan penjelmaan dari keseluruhan individu. Oleh karena itu negara berkewajiban menjaga kemerdekaan dan menertibkan berbagai kepentingan individu sehingga kemerdekaan individu yang satu tidak bertentangan dengan individu lainnya.

Negara sebagai integrasi antara pemerintah dan rakyat : bahwa negara merupakan integrasi antara pemerintah dan rakyatnya yang disamakan artinya dengan paham integralistik. Menurut paham ini, individu dianggap sebagai bagian integral negara yang memiliki kedudukan dan fungsi untuk menjalankan negara. Indonesia tidak menganut paham intgralistik secara murni. Akan tetapi, paham ini ditafsirkan sebagai paham negara kesatuan yang didasarkan pada kekeluargaan dan gotong-royong.

State as power organization : that state is society appliance having absolute authority to arrange relation between human being in society. Intrinsically represent a power organization uniting human being group which then referred as nation. All Important Element (primer) of state is power organization, while nation represent element of secundary.

State as political organization : that state represent integration power of politics. Functioning state as a means of arranging human being relations and arrange in order symptoms in society to reach the target of society.

State as ethics organization : that individual have independence in societal life. State as organization ethics of arising out because the happening of individual solidarity. State represent incarnation from overall of individual. Therefore state is obliged to take care of independence and arrange in order various importance of individual so that independence of individual which is one do not oppose against other individual.

State as integration between people and government : that state represent integration between government and its people which equalized by its meaning with understanding of integralistic. According to this understanding, individual considered to be state integral part owning to domicile and function to run state. Indonesia do not embrace understand integralistic purely. However, this understanding is interpreted as relied on unity state understanding is familiarity and cooperate.

PERBUATAN MELAWAN HUKUM (deed of tort)

2009-03-14T04:06:00.001-07:00

Pengaturan tentang melawan hukum dalam Kitab Undang-undang Hukum Perdata hanya dalam beberapa pasal saja, sebagaimana juga terjadi di negara-negara yang menganut sistem Eropa Kontinental lainnya, tetapi kenyataan menunjukkan bahwa gugatan perdata ada yang di pengadilan didominasi oleh gugatan melawan hukum, disamping gugatan ingkar janji kontrak (wanprestasi).

Perbuatan melawan hukum di sini dimaksudkan adalah sebagai melawan hukum keperdataan. Sebab, untuk perbuatan melawan hukum pidana (delik) atau kejahatan/pelanggaran pidana mempunyai arti dan pengaturan hukum yang berbeda.

Di negara-negara Eropa Kontinental, misalnya Belanda dikenal Istilah "Onrechtmatige Daad," atau di negara-negara Anglo Saxon dikenal dengan istilah "tort". Pengertian perbuatan melawan hukum adalah perbuatan yang dilakukan oleh seseorang atau badan hukum yang oleh karena salahnya telah menimbulkan kerugian bagi orang lain.

Dalam ilmu hukum dikenal 3 (tiga) kategori dari perbuatan melawan hukum, yaitu sebagai berikut :

Perbuatan melawan hukum karena kesengajaan (pasal 1365);
Perbuatan melawan hukum tanpa kesalahan/tanpa unsur kesengajaan maupun kelalaian (pasal 1366);
Perbuatan melawan hukum karena kelalaian (1367).

Arrangement about deed of tort in Civil Code only in a few just section, as also happened in nations embracing other Europe Continental system, but fact indicate that civil using there is which in justice predominated by suing deed of tort, beside suing break a promise contract.

Deed of toor is here neant by as contempting of court civil. Because, foor deed of tort crime (delict) or collision of crime have meaning and arrangement of different law.

In Continental European countries, for example Dutch recognized by term "Onrechtmatige daad" or in Anglo Saxon countries recognized with term "tort". Congeniality of deed of tort is deed conducted by legal body or someone which is wrong because ofness of him have generated loss to others.

In law science reconigzed by 3 (three) categorize from deed of tort, that is as follows :

Deed of tort because intention (section 1365 Civil Code of Indonesia);
Deed of tort without mistake/intentional element and also negligence (section 1366 Civil Code of Indonesia);
Deed of tort because negligence (section 1367 Civil Code of Indonesia).

TINDAK PIDANA LINGKUNGAN HIDUP (injustice environment)

2009-03-10T04:57:00.000-07:00

Manusia sejak dilahirkan di dunia ini, telah berada pada suatu lingkungan hidup tertentu. Kehidupan manusia haruslah seimbang atau serasi dengan lingkungan hidupnya. Apabila terjadi kerusakan, maka kehidupan manusia akan terancam dari akibat pengrusakan alam. Tindak pidana lingkungan hidup merupakan kejahatan yang meliputi perbuatan sebagai berikut :

Perbuatan pencemaran lingkungan hidup;
Perbuatan perusakan lingkungan hidup, dan
Perbuatan lain yang melanggar ketentuan perundang-undangan yang berlaku.

Pencemaran lingkungan hidup adalah masuknya atau dimasukannya mahluk hidup, zat, energi, dan/atau komponen lain ke dalam lingkungan hidup oleh kegiatan manusia, sehingga kualitasnya turun sampai ke tingkat tertentu yang menyebabkan lingkungan hidup tidak dapat berfungsi sesuai dengan peruntukannya.

Perusakan lingkungan hidup adalah tindakan yang menimbulkan perubahan langsung atau tidak langsung terhadap sifat fisik dan/atau hayatinya yang mengakibatkan lingkungan hidup tidak berfungsi lagi dalam menunjang pembangunan berkelanjutan.

Perbuatan loain yang melanggar ketentuan peraturan perundang-undangan yang berlaku terkait dengan pengelolaan lingkungan hidup. Peraturan perundang-undangan sebagaimana dimaksud dalam hal ini cukup banyak tersebar di berbagai tingkat peraturan.

Human being since borne in this world, have resided in at one particular certain environment. Human life shall be compatible or well-balanced with its environment. In then event of damage, hence human life will is threatened from effect of ruining of nature. Environment doing an injustice represent badness covering the following deed :

Deed of contamination of environment;
Deed of mutilation of environment, and
Other deed which impinge rule of legislation going into effect.

Contaminating of environment is entry of or its input of life being, matter, energy, and/or other component into environment by activity of human being, so that its quality get down to certain storey which cause environment of can not function as according to allotment of it.

Mutilation of environment is to action generating indirect or direct change to nature of physical and/or involve him resulting environment do not function again in supporting development of have continuation.

Other deed which impinge rule of law and regulation going into effect related to management of environment. Law and regulation as referred to in this matter quite a lot spread over in various regulation storey.

PEMBUKTIAN KEJAHATAN MAYANTARA (verification of cyber crime)

2009-03-09T05:24:00.000-07:00

Kemajuan teknologi komputer dan internet telah merubah masyarakat dari bersifat lokal menuju masyarakat yang bersifat global. Kehadiran internet telah merubah cara pandang dalam kehidupan manusia. Kehidupan yang nyata bertambah menjadi realitas bersifat maya (virtual). Perubahan cara pandang atau pola pikir yang semula paper based menjadi electronik based. Ini menjadi lebih jelas, ketika kita melakukan transaksi secara on-line.

Dalam praktek hukum perubahan ini menimbulkan perdebatan di kalangan ahli huku. Dalam hukum pidana terjadi perdebatan, apakah masih relevan model pembuktian konvensional ketika dihadapkan pada kejahatan virtual yang biasa dikenal dengan cyber crime. Membuktikan mengandung maksud dan usaha untuk menyatakan kebenaran atas suatu peristiwa.

Cyber crime semuanya serba maya. Dalam kejahatan ini biasanya pelaku melakukan aksinya seorang diri. Kejahatan yang dilakukan berbasis elektronik. Dalam Kitab Undang-undang Hukum Pidana di Indonesia tidak ada petunjuk tentang penggunaan alat bukti ini, mengingat dilakukan secara virtual yang akan sulit sekali untuk dilihat kapan (tempos delcti), bagaimana caranya (modusoperandi), dan dimana pelaku melakukan perbuatannya (locus delicti).

Progress of technology of computer and internet have change society from having the character of local go to society having the character of is global. Attendance of internet have change the way of approach in human life. Real life increase to become reality have the character of illusoryly (virtual). Change of way of patterned thinking or approach which initialy based paper become electronic of based. This become clearerly, when us conduct transaction on-linely.

In aspect law, this change make an issue among jurist. In criminal law happened debate, whether still is relevant of model verification of convential when given on to badness of virtual which is ordinary to be recognized with cyber crime. Proving to contain effort and intention to express the truth of to the an event.

Cyber crime altogether illusory completely. In this badness usually perpetrator conduct its action alone. Conductedb badness it base on electronic. In Criminal Code in Indonesia there no guide about usage of this evidence appliance, considering to be conducted by virtual to be difficult once for look when (tempos delicti), how to (modusoperandi), and where perpetrator conduct its badness (locus delicti)

ASAS-ASAS KEWARGANEGARAAN (civic principles)

2009-03-08T05:46:00.000-07:00

Kewarganegaraan adalah segala hal yang berhubungan dengan warga negara. Adapun asas-asas kewarganegaraan universal meliputi ius sanguinis, ius soli, dan campuran. Pengertian asas-asas tersebut adalah sebagai berikut :

Ius sanguinis (law of the blood) adalah asas yang menentukan kewarganegaraan seseorang berdasarkan keturunan, bukan berdasarkan negara tempat kelahiran.
Ius soli (law of the soil) adalah asas yang menentukan kewarganegaraan seseorang berdasarkan negara tempat kelahiran.
Kewarganegaraan tunggal adalah asas yang menentukan satu kewarganegaraan bagi setiap orang.
Kewarganegaraan ganda terbatas adalah asas yang menentukan kewarganegaraan ganda bagi anak-anak sesuai dengan ketentuan yang diatur di dalam undang-undang.

Civic is every thing related to citizen. As for universal civic principles cover ius sanguinis, ius soli, and mixture. Congeniality of the grounds shall be as follows :

Ius sanguinis (law of the blood) is principle determining, someone civic pursuant to clan, non pursuant to birth place state.
Ius soli (law of the soil) is principle determining someone civic pursuant to birth place state.
Single civic is principle determining one civic for every people.
Limited double civic is princile determining double civic to children pursuant to which is arranged in code.

PRIBADI (person)

2009-03-07T04:09:00.001-08:00

Yang dinamakan pribadi di dalam hukum adalah siapa saja yang dapat menjadi pendukung hak-hak dan kewajiban- kewajiban hukum, yaitu disebut juga sebagai subyek hukum. Bisa menjadi pendukung hak dan kewajiban artinya adalah mempunyai hak dan/atau kewajiban yang diakui oleh hukum. Sekalipun seseorang itu secara teoritis pada suatu saat tidak mempunyai hak maupun kewajiban (hukum) sama sekali, ia tetap saja sebagai person, ia tetap mempunyai kewenangan hukum.

Sebaliknya suatu badan hukum yang telah dibubarkan, selama proses likuidasi, masih dianggap sebagai badan hukum, karena kekayaannya, hak-hak dan kewajiban-kewajibannya tidak dengan sendirinya beralih kepada para manusia sebagai pemiliknya. Di dalam hukum, untuk hak-hak tersebut digunakan istilah teknis hukum, yaitu hak subyektif, namun dalam prakteknya orang biasa menyebutnya dengan "hak" saja.

Sekalipun dikatakan bahwa badan hukum bisa mempunyai hak dan kewajiban, tetapi sesuai dengan sifat dan keadaannya, tidak berarti bahwa badan hukum bisa mempunyai semua hak-hak dan kewajiban-kewajiban yang dipunyai oleh manusia (person alamiah).

Orang mulai mempunyai kepribadian sebagai manusia sejak ia dilahirkan, dengan begitu ia menjadi subyek hukum. Tetapi anak yang ada dalam kandungan seorang perempuan, dianggap sebagai telah dilahirkan, bilamana juga untuk kepentingan si anak menghendakinya (misalnya masalah waris). Mati sewaktu dilahirkan, dianggap ia tidak perdah ada.

Which named by person in law is whosoever able to become supporting of rights and obligations of law, that is referred as also as law subject. Can become supporting of its meaning rights and obligations is to have obligation and/or rights confessed by law. Even if that someone theoretically at one time have no right and also obligation (law) at all, its just remain to be as person, its remain to have outhoritative of law.

On the contrary a legal body which have been disbanded, during liquidation process, still considered to be legal body, because its properties, its rights and obligations do not by itself transfer to all human being as its owner. In law, for the nrights used by technical term of law, that is rights of subjective, but in practice of common people mention with "rights" just.

Even if said that by legal body can have rights and obligations, but as naccording to nature of and its situation, did not mean that legal body can have all obligations and rights had by human being (natural person).

People start to have personality as human being since its borne, that wat he become law subject, but existing child in content a women, considered to be have been borne, when also for the sake of the child want its (for example matter of heir). Dead is time borne, to be assumed by its have never there.

ARTI PENTING PUTUSAN HAKIM (important meaning of judge decision)

2009-03-06T04:14:00.000-08:00

Di dalam undang-undang termuat hukum, berwujud aturan-aturan. Ini merupakan hukum yang tertulis. Tetapi di dalam tindakan-tindakan seseorang pun juga tersimpul hukum. dari kenyataan-kenyataan itupun juga dapat diketemukan aturan-aturan. Ini merupakan hukum yang tidak tertulis, sekedar itu tidak juga terdapat dalam sebuah undang-undang.

Jika seseorang melakukan tindakan yang tidak sebagaimana hukumnya, jikalau ada persoalan bagaimanakah hukumnya, maka harus ditemukan bagaimanakah atau apakah hukumnya itu. Kita sendiri juga dapat mengatakan bagaimanakah hukumnya itu dalam suatu hal, akan tetapi pendapat kita itu adalah pendapat perseorangan. Pendapat kita itu tidak mempunyai kekuatan mengikat secara obyektif.

Orang-orang yang pendapatnya justru mempunyai kekuatan mengikat yaitu petugas hukum, yang salah satunya ialah hakim, atau pengadilan. Hakim di dalam keputusannya, menetapkan bagaimana hukumnya yang berlaku di dalam sesuatu hal. Petugas hukum lainnya ialah pembentuk undang-undang. Tetapi tugas hakim berlainan daripada tugas pembentuk undang-undang, walaupun pada asasnya sama, yaitu menetapkan hukum. Hakim memutuskan hukumnya yang berlaku secara konkrit, sedangkan pembentuk undang-undang secara abstrak.

Di negara-negara Anglo-Saxon, termasuk Amerika Serikat. Di sana para hakim terikat kepada keputusan yang sudah ada lebih dahulu dari hakim-hakim yang lebih tinggi dan hakim-hakim yang sejajar. Dengan demikian di negara itu terjadi "judge made law", atau "case law". Sedangkan di Indonesia tidak demikian karena putusan hakim terdahulu dalam perkara kemudian yang serupa boleh diikuti oleh hakim yang akan mengambil keputusan. Kata "boleh" berarti tidak harus.

In Code included law, extant of orders. This represent written law. But in someone action is also concluded by law of facts of that even also can be met by orders. This represent unwritten law, simply that do not also there are in a Code.

If someone conduct action which do not as its law, if there is problem how its law, hence have to be found how or what is its law. Our own also can tell how its law in a matter, however our opinion that is opinion of civil. Our opinion that don't have strength fasten objectively.

Its Opinion people who exactly have strength fasten that is officer of law, what one of them is judge, or justice. Judge in its decision, specifying how its law which go into effect in something matter. Officer of other law is lawmaker. But different judge duty than duty lawmaker, although at its is same principle, that is specifying law. Judge decide its law which go into effect by concrete, while lawmaker of abstractionly.

In Anglo-Saxin nations, including United States. Over there all judge tied to decision which have there in advace from higher level judges and parallel judges. Thereby in that state happened "judge made law", or "case law". While in Indonesia do not that way because former judge decision in similar case later may follow by judge to take decision. Word "may" mean do not have to.

ASAS DEMOKRASI (democracy principle)

2009-03-05T03:36:00.000-08:00

Negara Hukum adalah negara yang penyelenggaraan pemerintahannya dijalankan berdasarkan dan bersaranakan hukum. Keberadaan negara hukum menjunjung asas-asas dasar yang menjadi pedoman dan salah satunya adalah asas demokrasi.

Asas demokrasi memberikan suatu cara atau metode pengambilan keputusan. Asas ini menuntut bahwa setiap orang harus mempunyai kesempatan yang sama untuk mempengaruhi tindakan pemerintah. Asas ini diwujudkan lewat sistem representasi (perwakilan rakyat) yang mempunyai peranan dalam pembentukan undang-undang dan kontrol terhadap pemerintah. Beberapa hal penting dalam asas demokrasi yaitu :

Pemilihan umum
Pemerintah bertanggungjawab kepada perwakilan rakyat
Semua warga negara mempunyai kesempatan yang sama atau berpartisipasi dalam politik dan mengontrol pemerintahan
Semua perbuatan pemerintah terbuka terhadap kritik dan kajian rasional dari semua pihak
Kebebasan menyatakan pendapat
Kebebasan pers dan keterbukaan informasi publik
Rancangan undang-undang harus dipublikasikan untuk memungkinkan partisipasi rakyat

Masyarakat atau negara demokrasi adalah sebuah komunitas yang penggunaan kekuasaan di dalamnya secara institusional memperoleh legitimasi dari persetujuan rakyat sebagai suatu keseluruhan. Demokrasi perwakilan yang sejati hanya dapat terwujud dalam Negara Hukum.

Law States is state which is management of its governance is run pursuant to and have law medium. Existence of body politic hold high elementary grounds which become guidance and one of them is democracy principle.

Democracy principle give a way of or decision making method. This ground claim that each and everyone have to have same opportunity to influence to government action. This ground is realized to pass system of representation (delegation of people) having role in forming of code or law and control to government. Important several things in ground democratize that is :

General election
Governmental hold responsible to delegation of people
All citizen have is same opportunity or participate in politics and control governance
All deed of open government to rational study and criticism from all side
Freedom express opinion
Liberty of the press and openness of public information
Draft of law have to be publicized to enable people participation

Society or democratic country is a community which usage of power in it institutionally get legitimed of approval of people as an entirerty. Democratize real delegation of can only from in Law States.

PEMAHAMAN TENTANG KONTRAK (understanding about contract)

2009-03-04T04:40:00.000-08:00

Ada tiga sistem hukum yang dikenal di dunia, namun yang paling menonjol adalah "common law legal system" yang berlaku di negara-negara Anglo Saxon. Sementara itu sistem "civil law legal system" dianut di negara-negara Eropa Kontinental. Dan yang terakhir adalah "socialist law legal system" yang sebenarnya lebih banyak dipengaruhi oleh civil law.

Dalam merancang kontrak atau pembuatan suatu konsep perjanjian harus mengacu kepada sistem hukum yang dianut. Di era globalisasi yang mempengaruhi sistem hukum yang diterapkan karena terjadi perjumpaan antara sistem hukum yang berlainan.

Dalam merancang kontrak, yang pembuatnya merupakan subjek-subjek hukum dari negara-negara yang menganut sistem hukum yang berbeda. Kontrak itu sebenarnya adalah suatu perjanjian, sehingga dalam membuat atau merancang suatu draft kontrak, mutlak diperlukan suatu pengetahuan dasar, yaitu mengenai teori hukum perjanjian. Pembuatan kontrak atau perjanjian tertulis, mempunyai kaitan dengan masalah pembuktian.

There is three recognized law system in world, but most uppermost is "common law legal system" going into effect in countries of Anglo Saxon. Meanwhile system "civil law legal system" embraced in countries of European Continental. And last is "socialist law legal system" what in fact more influenced by civil law.

In designing contract or making an agreement concept have to relate to embraced law system. In globalization era influencing applied law system because happened meet between different law system.

In designing contract, which is its maker represent subject law from nations embracing different law system. That contract in fact is an agreement, so that in making or design a draft of contract, absolute needed by a basic knowledges, that is hitting contractual law theory. Making of contract or agreement written, having bearing with matter of verification.

TINDAK PIDANA (crime)

2009-03-03T03:31:00.000-08:00

Secara dogmatis masalah pokok yang berhubungan dengan hukum pidana adalah membicarakan tiga hal, yaitu :

perbuatan yang dilarang
orang yang melakukan perbuatan yang dilarang itu
sanksi yang diancam terhadap pelanggaran itu

Tindak pidana formil adalah tindak pidana yang perumusannya dititikberatkan kepada perbuatan yang dilarang, sebagaimana ditentukan oleh undang-undang, misalnya perbuatan mencuri. Tindak pidana materiil adalah tindak pidana yang perumusannya dititikberatkan kepada akibat yang dilarang, yaitu tindak pidana ini baru selesai apabila akibat yang dilarang itu terjadi, misalnya mengakibatkan hilangnya nyawa orang lain.

Tindak pidana comisionis adalah tindak pidana yang berupa pelanggaran terhadap aturan yang telah ditetapkan oleh undang-undang. Tindak pidana omisionis adalah tindak pidana yang berupa pelanggaran terhadap pemerintah yang telah ditetapkan oleh undang-undang.

Dolus adalah tindak pidana yang dilakukan dengan sengaja, sedangkan Culpa adalah tindak pidana yang dilakukan dengan kelalaian atau karena kealpaan. Tindak pidana aduan adalah perbuatan yang dilakukan itu baru dapat dilakukan penuntutan, apabila ada pengaduan. Jadi jika tidak ada pengaduan, maka perbuatan tersebut tidak akan dituntut.

Orang yang melakukan perbuatan yang dilarang adalah setiap pelaku yang dapat dipertanggungjawabkan secara pidana atas perbuatan yang dilarang dalam suatu undang-undang. Orang yang melakukan tindak pidana meliputi orang yang melakukan, orang yang menyuruh melakukan atau turut serta melakukan.

Sanksi yang diancamkan berupa hukuman pokok dan hukuman tambahan. Hukuman pokok meliputi hukuman mati, penjara, kurungan, dan denda. Hukuman tambahan meliputi pencabutan hak tertentu, penyitaan barang tertentu, pengumuman putusan hakim.

Dogmatically main problem related to criminal law to discuss there things, that is :

prohibited deed
one who conduct the prohibition deed
menaced sanction to that collision

Formal of crime is an injustice which its formulation of focussed to prohibited dee, as determined by code, for example deed steal. Material of crime is an injustice which its formulation of focussed to effect of which is prohibitede, that is this doing an injustice newly finish if effect of the prohibiting happened, for example resulting the loss of others soul.

Comisionis of crime is an injustice which in the form of collision to order which have been specified by code. Omisionis of crime is an injustice which in the form of collision to government which have been specified by code.

Dolus ia an injustice designedly, while Culpa is conducted an injustice with because negligence. Crime which informed against is the conducting deed newly can be conducted by prosecution, if there is denunciating. Become otherwise there is denunciating, hence the deed will not be claimed.

One who conduct deed the prohibited is every perpetrator able to be justified law of deed which is prohibited in a code. One who conduct crime cover one who conduct, one who ordering to conduct or have a share to conduct.

Manaced sanction in the form of fundamental penalization and extra punishment. Fundamental penalization cover capital punishment, prison, coop, and penalty. Extra punishment cover repeal of certain rights, confiscation of certain goods, announcement of judge decision.

HUKUM POSITIF (positive law)

2009-03-02T04:24:00.000-08:00

Tiap-tiap bangsa memiliki hukumnya sendiri, seperti terhadap bahasa dikenal tata bahasa, demikian juga terhadap hukum dikenal juga tata hukum. Tiap-tiap bangsa mempunyai tata hukumnya sendiri.

Perbuatan atau tindakan manakah yang menurut hukum, dan manakah yang melawan hukum, bagaimanakah kedudukan seseorang dalam masyarakat, apakah kewajiban-kewajiban dan wewenang-wewenangnya. Semua pertanyaan itu akan terjawab menurut tata hukum masing-masing negara.

Hukum yang sedang berlaku di dalam seatu negara dinamakan hukum positif. Hukum dijadikan objek dari ilmu pengetahuan, yaitu hukum yang sedang berlaku di dalam suatu negara. Ilmu yang dipelajari ini disebut ilmu pengetahuan hukum positif.

Every nation have is own law, like to language recognized by structure, and so do to law recognized also law structure. Every nation have its own law structure.

Deed or action is which according to law, and which contempt of court, how dimiciling someone in society, what is obligations and its authority. All that question will be answered according to law of each state.

Law which going into effect in a stste by named is positive law. Law made by object of science, that is law which going into effect in a state. This ccience studied referred as positive law

ASAS KEPASTIAN HUKUM (rule of law principle)

2009-03-01T04:03:00.000-08:00

Negara hukum bertujuan untuk menjamin bahwa kepastian hukum terwujud dalam masyarakat. Hukum bertujuan untuk mewujudkan kepastian dalam hubungan antar manusia, yaitu menjamin prediktabilitas, dan juga bertujuan untuk mencegah bahwa hak yang terkuat yang berlaku, beberapa asas yang terkandung dalam asas kepastian hukum adalah :

Asas legalitas, konstitusionalitas, dan supremasi hukum.
Asas undang-undang menetapkan berbagai perangkat aturan tentang cara pemerintah dan para pejabatnya melakukan tindakan pemerintahan.
Asas non-retroaktif perundang-undangan : sebelum mengikat, undang-undang harus diumumkan secara layak.
Asas non-liquet : hakim tidak boleh menolak perkara yang dihadapkan kepadanya dengan alasan undang-undang tidak jelas atau tidak ada.
Asas peradilan bebas : objektif-imparsial dan adil-manusiawi.
Hak asasi manusia harus dirumuskan dan dijamin perlindungannya dalam undang-undang dasar.

Negara adalah suatu penataan yuridisal, dimana kekuasaan yang terlegitimasi dijalankan untuk mewujudkan cita-cita plitik dan memenuhi atau memuaskan kebutuhan-kebutuhan kolektif. Demokrasi perwakilan yang sejati hanya dapat terwujud dalam negara hukum.

Law state aim to guarante that form rule of law in society. Law aim to realize certainty in relation between human being, that is guarantying predictability, as well as aim to prevent that strong rights which go into effect, some ground which implied in rule of law ground is :

Legality principle, constitutionality, and rule of law.
Principle of Code specify various peripheral of order about way of government and all its functionary conduct action governance.
Principle of Non-Retroactive legislation : before fastening, code have to be announced competently.
Principle of Non-Liquet : judge may not refuse confronted case to it with reason of ill definel defined code or there no.
Free jurisdiction principle : objective-imparcial and is fair-human.
Human rights have to be formulated and guaranteed by its protection in constitution.

State is a settlement of yuridisal, where power which is legitimation run to realize aspiration of politic and fulfill or gratify collective requirements, real delegation democracy of form can only in law state.

HUKUM INVESTASI (Investment law)

2009-02-28T03:55:00.000-08:00

Hukum investasi merupakan norma-norma hukum mengenai kemungkinan-kemungkinan dilakukannya investasi, syarat-syarat maupun perlindungan hukum, dan yang terpenting mengarahkan agar investasi dapat mensejahterakan rakyat.

Objek hukum investasi meliputi objek materiil berupa bahan yang dijadikan sasaran dalam pengkajiannya, dan objek formal berupa sudut pandang tertentu terhadap objek materiilnya. Objek formal hukum investasi adalah mengatur :

hubungan antara investor dengan negara penerima modal;
bidang-bidang usaha yang terbuka untuk investasi;
prosedur dan syarat-syarat dalam melakukan investasi dalam suatu negara.

Asas hukum internasional merupakan asas di dalam penyelesaian sengketa antara pemerintah dengan penanam modal, apabila pemerintah melakukan tindakan nasionalisasi/pencabutan hak milik secara menyeluruh, dan penyelesaiannya harus didasarkan pada asas-asas hukum internasional.

Di dalam Agreement on Trade Related Invesment Measures (TRIMs) telah ditentukan sebuah asas, yaitu asas nondiskriminasi. Asas ini maksudnya adalah bahwa dalam investasi itu sendiri bersifat state borderless (tidak mengenal batas negara). Artinya tidak ada perbedaan antara investasi asing dengan investasi lokal.

Investment law represent norms law to regarding possibilities conducting of investment, conditions and also protection of law, and all important instruct investment to can be secure and prosperous of people.

Object investment law cover material object in the form materials taken as target in ist study, and formal object in the form of certain viewpoint to object of its material. Formal object of investment law is to arrange :

relation between investor with state receicer of capital;
areas of effort open for the investment;
conditions and prosedure in conducting investment in state.

International principle of justice of represent ground in solving of dispute between government with investor, if government conduct action nationalzation/dispossession by totaly, and its solution have to be relied on international principle of justices.

In Agreement on Trade Related Investment Measures (TRIMs) have been determined by a ground, thatn is ground of nondiscrimination. This groud is intention is that in itself investment have the character of state borderless (do not know state boundary). Its meaning there no difference between foreign investment with local investment.

HAK CIPTA (copyright)

2009-02-27T19:52:00.000-08:00

Hak cipta adalah hak eksklusif bagi pencipta atau penerima hak untuk mengumumkan atau memperbanyak ciptaannya atau memberi izin untuk dengan itu tidak mengurangi pembatasan- pembatasan menurut peraturan perundang-undangan yang berlaku.

Pencipta adalah Seorang atau beberapa orang secara bersama-sama yang atas inspirasinya melahirkan suatu ciptaan berdasarkan kemampuan pikiran, imajinasi, kecekatan, keterampilan atau keahlian yang dituangkan dalam bentuk yang khas dan bersifat pribadi.

Ciptaan adalah hasil setiap karya pencipta yang menunjukkan keasliannya dalam lapangan ilmu pengetahuan, seni, atau sastra.

Pemegang hak cipta adalah pencipta sebagai pemilik hak cipta, atau pihak yang menerima hak tersebut dari pencipta, atau pihak lain yang menerima lebih lanjut hak dari pihak tersebut di atas.

Hak cipta dapat dialihkan baik seluruhnya maupun sebagian karena pewarisan, hibah, wasiat, perjanjian tertulis atau sebab-sebab lain yang dibenarkan oleh peraturan perundang-undangan.

Copyright is exclusive rights to receiver or creator the right to announce or multiply its creation or allow to with that do not lessen dermarcations according to law and regulation going into effect.

Creator is A or same people by together which of its inspiration bear a creation pursuant to ability of mind, imagine, handiness, poured knowledge or skill in the form of typical and have the character of person.

Creation is result of each creator masterpiece shoeing its authenticity in science field, artistic, or art.

Right owner create is creator as owner of copyrights, or the abandonee party of creator, or other party accepting furthermore belonging of above mentioned party.

Copyrights can be tranferred by goodness entirely and also party because endowment, donation, escrow, agreement ot other causes which agreed by law and regulation.

HAK DAN KEWAJIBAN (rights and obligation)

2009-02-26T23:10:00.000-08:00

Konsep "kewajiban" dan konsep "hak" memberikan prioritas peringkat kepada hak. Dalam lingkup hukum, kita berbicara tentang "hak dan kewajiban", dan bukan "kewajiban dan hak", seperti halnya dalam lingkup moral, di mana penekanan yang lebih besar diberikan pada kewajiban. Kita berbicara tentang hak sebagai sesuatu yang berbeda dari hukum.

Namun hak adalah hukum. Hukum dalam arti kata subyektif yang berlawanan dengan "hukum" dalam pengertian obyektif, yakni suatu tatanan hukum atau sistem norma. Untuk membedakan hak dan hukum, kita perlu berbicara dalam bahasa Jerman tentang subjektives Recht dan objektives Recht ( hukum subyektif dan hukum obyektif).

Consept "obligation" and consept "rights" giving level priority to rights. In law scope, we converse about "right an obligation", and non "obligation and right", just as in moral scope, where emphasis of larger ones passed to obligation. We converse about rights as something that differ from law.

But rights is law. Law in word meaning of subyektif adversative with "law" in congeniality of objective, namely an arrange law or norm system. To differentiate law and rights, we need to converse in German about subjektives Recht and of objektives Recht (subjective law and objective law).

HAK KEKAYAAN INTELEKTUAL (intellectual property rights)

2009-02-25T03:12:00.000-08:00

Hak kekayaan intelectual (HKI), yakni hak yang timbul bagi hasil olah pikir otak yang menghasilkan suatu produk atau proses yang berguna untuk manusia. Pada intinya HKI adalah hak untuk menikmati secara ekonomis hasil dari suatu kreativitas intelektual. Objek yang diatur dalam HKI adalah karya-karya yang timbul atau lahir karena kemampuan intelektual manusia.

HKI dibagi dalam 2 (dua) bagian, yaitu :
1. Hak cipta;
2. Hak kekayaan industri, yaitu melitputi paten, desain industri, merek, desain tata letak sirkut terpadu, dan rahasia dagang.

Sistem HKI merupakan hak privat. Seseorang bebas mengajukan permohonan atau mendaftarkan karya intelektualnya ataupun tidak. Badan yang secara internasional mengurus masalah HKI adalah World Intellectual Property Organinization (WIPO), suatu badan khusus Perserikatan Bangsa-bangsa. Pada saat ini, HKI telah menjadi isu yang sangat penting dan mendapat perhatian baik dalam forum nasional maupun internasional. Dimasukannya TRIPs dalam paket Persetujuan WTO tahun 1994 menandakan dimulainya era baru perkembangan HKI di seluruh dunia.

Dengan Demikian pada saat ini permasalahan HKI tidak dapat dilepaskan dari dunia perdagangan dan investasi. Pentingnya HKI dalam pembangunan ekonomi dan perdagangan telah memacu dimulainya era baru pembangunan ekonomi yang berdasarkan ilmu pengetahuan.

Intellectual property rights (IPR), that is sharing holder arising out rights process to think brain yielding a process or product which good for human being. At its nucleus of IPR is the right to enjoy economically result of from an intellectual creativity. Object which is arranged in IPR is arising out masterpieces or born because intellectual ability of human being.

IPR devided into 2 shares, that is :
1. Copyrights;
2. Industrial property rights, that is covering patent, industrial design, trademark, layout design of integrated circuit, and trade secret.

Siystem of IPR represent rights of privat. Free someone apply or register intellectual masterpiece of him and or not. Body which internationally manage the problem of IPR is World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), a special body of United Nation Organization. At the moment, IPR have come to very important issue and get attention of goodness in national forum and international. Its input of TRIPs in package Approval of WTO year 1994 designating starting of new era growth of IPR in all the world.

Thereby at the moment problems of IPR cannot be discharged from commerce world and invesment. Important of IPR in development of commerce and economics have reced starting of new era development of economics which pursuant to science.

HUKUM ADMINISTRASI PEMERINTAHAN (public administration and law)

2009-02-24T02:00:00.000-08:00

Hukum Administrasi Negara telah berkembang sejalan dengan gerak pemerintah dalam menata masyarakat. Dalam menjalankan tugas dan fungsi pemerintah menggunakan sarana hukum sebagai instrumen pengaturan.

Sebagai perwujudannya, pemerintah mengeluarkan aturan-aturan yang mengandung larangan dan kebolehan (izin), serta membuat ketetapan-ketetapan. Oleh karena itu, sejak awal, bahkan sejak dahulu pemerintah telah melibatkan atau telah menggunakan sarana hukum dalam penataan dan pengelolaan masyarakat.

Administration state law have expanded in line with governmental montion in arranging society. In running governmental function and duty use medium law as arrangement instrument.

As its materialization, government pregnant orders prohibition order and ability, and also make decisions. Therefore, since early, even since governmental ahead have etangled or have medium law in settlement and management of society.

SUMBER-SUMBER HUKUM INTERNASIONAL (source of international law)

2009-02-23T03:44:00.000-08:00

Tidak ada badan legislatif internasional untuk membuat ketentuan-ketentuan yang mengatur secara langsung kehidupan masyarakat internasional. Satu-satunya organisasi internasional yang melakukan fungsi legislatif adalah Majelis Umum PBB, tetapi resolusi-resolusi yang dikeluarkannya tidak mengikat, kecuali yang menyangkut kehidupan organisasi internasional itu sendiri.

Ada konferensi-konferensi internasional dapat didefinisikan yang diselenggarakan dalam kerangka PBB untuk membahas masalah-masalah tertentu, tetapi tidak selalu merumuskan law-making treaties.

Sumber-sumber materiil hukum internasional dapat didefinisikan sebagai bahan-bahan aktual yang digunakan oleh para ahli hukum internasional untuk menetapkan hukum yang berlaku bagi suatu peristiwa atau situasi tertentu. Bahan-bahan tersebut dapat dikategorikan dalam lima bentuk, yaitu:
1. Kebiasaan;
2. Traktat;
3. Keputusan pengadilan atau badan-badan arbitrase;
4. Karya-karya hukum;
5. Keputusan atau ketetapan organ-organ/lembaga internasional.

Sedangkan Pasal 38 (1) Statuta Mahkamah Internasional menetapkan bahwa sumber hukum internasional yang dipakai oleh Mahkamah, yaitu :
1. Perjanjian internasional;
2. Kebiasaan internasional;
3. Prinsip-prinsip umum hukum;
4. Keputusan pengadilan.

There no international legislative body to make rules arranging directly life of international society. Single international organization which conduct legislative fuction is General Assembly of United Nation Organization, but free released resolutions it, except which concerning life of international organization of itself.

There is international conferences can be defined which carried out in United Nation Organization framework to study certain problems, but do not always formulate law-making treaties.

Material sources of international law can be defined as materialss of aktual used by all international jurist to specify applicable law to a certain situation or event. The materialss can be categorized in five form, that is :
1. Custom;
2. Treaty;
3. Verdict or decisioan bodys of arbitrase;
4. Law masterpieces;
5. Decision of organs/international institute.

While Section 38 (1) Statute World Court (International Justice Court) contend that source of international law which weared by Lawcourt, that is :
1. International aggreement/conventions;
2. International custom;
3. General principles of law;
4. Verdict/judicial decisions.

PEMAHAMAN HAK ASASI MANUSIA DI INDONESIA (understanding of human rights in Indonesia)

2009-02-22T01:17:00.000-08:00

Pemahaman tentang HAM dalam Negara Hukum di Indonesia didasarkan pada :
1. HAM dipahami dalam terminology hubungan atau relationship. Hak harus dilihat dalam hubungannya dengan masyarakat secara keseluruhan, dan pada saat yang sama masyarakat atau suatu komunitas berhubungan dengan hak-hak seorang individu.
2. Dalam pengembangan HAM, berarti menerima adanya kewajiban atau tanggung-jawab manusia. HAM tidak dapat dibicarakan tanpa adanya implikasi langsung dari kewajiban masyarakat untuk menghormati HAM.
3. HAM harus dipahami sebagai satu kesatuan yang tidak dapat dipisah-pisahkan. Pemahaman ini menunjukkan bahwa pada akhirnya hanya ada satu hak, yaitu hak untuk menjadi manusia.

Understanding of about human rights in law state in Indonesia relied on :
1. Human rights comprehended in relation terminology or relationship. Rights have to be seen its relation with society as a whole, and at the time of same of society or a community relate to rights a individual.
2. In development of human rights, meaning to accept the existence of human being responsibilities or obligation. Human right cannot be discussed without existence of direct implication of obligation of society in honour of human rights.
3. Human rights have to comprehend as one unity which cannot be separated. This understanding indicate that in the end there's only one right, that is the right to be human being.

ASPEK TEKNOLOGI PERLINDUNGAN PATEN (technological aspect protection of patent)

2009-02-21T03:27:00.000-08:00

Indonesia mengalami pertumbuhan ekonomi yang sebagian besar dipicu oleh penanam modal asing sebelum krisis ekonomi tahun 1997. Gejolak politik dan inkonsistensi hukum pada setiap periode pemerintahan turut mewarnai penanaman modal asing di Indonesia.

Indonesia mau tidak mau harus melangkah maju sebagai konsekuensinya menjadi anggota GATT/WTO dan dalam rangka menyambut globalisasi. Untuk melaksanakan pembangunan di segala bidang, utamanya dalam rangka industrialisasi, mutlak diperlukan teknologi. Pengembangan teknologi tersebut diperlukan pengaturan paten.

Pengaturan paten pada hakekatnya adalah perlindungan paten itu sendiri yang berfungsi untuk melindungi penemuan sekaligus sebagai perangsang pengembangan teknologi, selanjutnya mewujudkan kesejahteraan masyarakat sebagai pengguna manfaat teknologis dan ekonomis paten.

Di Jerman, perlindungan luas, meskipun sama-sama merujuk kepada Konvensi Strasbourg dan Konvensi Paten Eropa. Inggris memberikan perlindungan yang sempit bagi luasnya perlindungan terhadap penemuan. Penentuan luasnya perlindungan dilakukan dengan berdasarkan penafsiran hakim yang dituangkan melalui putusan pengadilan, sesuai prinsip state decisis (common law).

Luasnya perlindungan penemuan di Inggris masih lebih besar dibandingkan Amerika. Di Amerika, tidak diatur luasnya perlindungan. Bahkan di Jepan, luasnya perlindungan sama seimbang dengan Amerika. Di Indonesia, luasnya perlindungan tidak diatur dalam Undang-undang Republik Indonesia Nomo 14 Tahun 2001 tentang Paten.

Dalam menentukan batas perlindungan Paten di Indonesia, seharusnya tidak diberikan terlalu luas sehingga tidak mengakibatkan terlalu besarnya monopoli yang diperoleh dalam mengeksploitasi penemuan tersebut, yaitu demi kepentingan para pihak, baik individu, masyarakat dan negara dalam pertumbuhan ekonomi dan teknologi, serta jaminan kepastian hukum.

Indonesia experienced of growth of economics is mostly triggered by foreign investor before economic crisis of 1997 year. Political distortion and inconsistence law in each period of governance partake to influence foreign invesment in Indonesia.

Indonesia will do not want to have to do progress as its consequence become member of GATT/WTO and in order to greeting globalization. To execute development in all sector. The core important in order to industrialization, needed by absolute of technology. Development of the technology needed regulation of patent.

Arrangement of patent intrinsically is protection of functioning itself paten to protect invention at the same time as incentive of development of technology, hereinafter realize prosperity of society as consumer of economic and technological benefit of patent.

In Germany, wide of protection, though both of the same refer to Convention of Strasbourg and Convention Patent Europe. English give narrow protection to protection broadness to invention. Determination of protection broadness conducted with pursuant to interpretation of poured judge through justice decision, according to principle of state decisis (common law).

Broadness protection of invention in English still compared to bigger of America. In America, do not be arranged by protection broadness. Even in Japan, Well-balanced is same protection broadness with America. In Indonesia, protection broadness do not be arranged in Code Republik of Indonesia number of 14 year of 2001 about Patent.

In delimitating protection of Patent in Indonesia, shouldn't be given too wide of so that do not result too big monopolistic which obtained in exploiting the invention, that is for the benefit of the parties, good of individual, state and society in growth of technology and economics, and also rule of law guarantee.

TENTANG TUNTUTAN SEKUMPULAN ORANG (about class action)

2009-02-20T05:50:00.000-08:00

Hak-hak masyarakat yang diatur dan dilindungi oleh hukum harus dijamin pemenuhannya. Hukum harus mampu menyelesaikan masalah-masalah yang timbul melalui sistem hukum pula. Istilah class action merupakan gabungan dari dua kata class dan action. Pengertian class adalah sekumpulan orang yang mempunyai kesamaan sifat, ciri, dan kepentingan, sedangkan pengertian action dalam dunia hukum adalah tuntutan yang diajukan kepengadilan.

Hukum acara perdata di Indonesia tidak mengenal prosedur gugatan secara perwakilan sebagaimana dimaksud di dalam Undang-undang Republik Indonesia tetang Pengelolaan Lingkungan Hidup (UUPLH), maupun prosedur class action sebagaimana diperkenalkan di dalam Undang-undang Republik Indonesia tentang Perlindungan Konsumen (UUPK) dan telah lama dikenal di Negara-negara common law.

Dengan adanya kemiripan antara gugatan perwakilan sebagaimana dimaksud di dalam UUPLH, serta class action sebagaimana dimaksud di dalam UUPK, ada kemungkinan pembentuk UUPLH dan UUPK ingin mengimplementasikan prinsip-prinsip class action dalam sistem peradilan di Indonesia.

Dari pengertian tentang class action dapat diketahui adanya dua unsur pokok dalam pengajuan gugatan secara class action. Dua unsur pokok tersebut adalah :
1. perwakilan kelompok; dan
2. keanggotaan kelompok.
Wakil kelompok dan anggota kelompok ini merupakan pihak-pihak dalam class action.

Arranged society rights and under the aegis of law have to be guaranteed its accomplishment. Law have to can finish the problem of arising out through law system too. Term class action represent aliance from word of class and of action. Congeniality of class is a group of one who have equality of nature, caracteristic, and importance, while congeniality of action in the world of law is raised by demand justice.

Procedure of civil law in Indonesia do not know suing procedure delegationly as referred to in Code Republic of Indonesia abour Management of Environment (UUPLH) and also prosedure of class action as introduced in Code Republic of Indonesia about is Consumerism (UUPK) and have old recognized in Nations of common law.

With existenceof looking like between delegation suing as refered to in UUPLH, and also class action as in intention in UUPK, there is possibility of maker of UUPLH and of UUPK wish principal implementation of class action in system of judicature in Indonesia.

From congeniality about class action can know the existence of two fundamental element in proffering of suing by class action. Two the fundamental element is :
1. representative class; and
2. members of class.
Group proxy and this group member represent the parties in class action.

KEDUDUKAN PENGETAHUAN TRADISIONAL TERHADAP PATEN (existence traditional knowledge to patent)

2009-02-19T02:08:00.000-08:00

Pengetahuan tradisional adalah karya masyarakat tradisional yang bisa berupa adat budaya, karya seni, dan teknologi yang telah turun-temurun digunakan sejak nenek moyang. Sistem paten Barat meninggalkan sebuah model khusus pada suatu waktu yang khusus di dalam sejarah dan keasliannya hilang di dalam waktu.

Model-model baru mungkin akan dibutuhkan untuk melindungi pengetahuan tradisional dan ini tidak mudah untuk menciptakannya. Untuk beberapa hal, merupakan tamparan politik dari inisiatif kebenaran, selain melihatnya sebagai penghargaan yang adil.

Pengenalan model-model itu akan membantu mengalirkan naiknya air pasang terhadap TRIPs dengan menunjukan kesamaan negara-negara berkembang termiskin bahwa hak kekayaan intelektual bisa menjadi sebuah kesempatan, tidak hanya sebuah ancaman.

Akan tetapi seni yang telah dahulu ini pada pengetahuan tradisional tidak dapat diidentifikasikan pada saat pemeriksaan pendaftaran paten oleh pemeriksa paten.

Traditional knowledge is traditional society masterpiece which can in the form of cultural custom, swan song, and technology which have by generations used since ancestors. Western patent system grew out of a particular model of innovation at a particular time in history and its origins are lost in the mists of time.

New models will probably be needed to protect such traditional knowledge, and these will not be easy to create. To Same, such initiatives smack of political correctness, others see them as fair reward.

Their introduction would help to return the rising tide against TRIPs by showing even the poorest developing countries that intellectual property rights can be opportunity, not just a threat.

However this prior art consisted of traditional knowledge which could not be identified by the patent examiners during the examination of the patent application.

REPARASI TERHADAP KORBAN PELANGGARAN HAM (reparation to victim collicion of human rights)

2009-02-18T23:41:00.000-08:00

Hak Asasi Manusia melahirkan tuntutan-tuntutan warga negara selaku penyandang hak kepada negara. Kewajiban yang utama negara terhadap hak asasi manusia, yaitu :
1. untuk tidak melanggar;
2. untuk menjamin penghormatan terhadap hak asasi manusia.

Reparasi terhadap korban pelanggaran hak asasi manusia yang mempertanyakan upaya hukum nasional dan upaya hukum internasional merupakan isu hukum. Setiap pelanggaran hak asasi manusia merupakan bentuk kewajiban hak asasi manusia yang kedua.

Hak asasi manusia adalah hak hukum maka harus ada upaya hukum, sehingga korban dapat menempuh upaya hukum berdasarkan pertimbangan yang berdasarkan bentuk atau jenis pelanggarannya. Adapun berdasarkan hukum internasional, negara yang melakukan pelanggaran hak asasi manusia bertanggung gugat secara internasional. Penerapan sanksi internasional supaya negara pelanggar hak asasi manusia melakukan reparasi terhadap korban dapat menjadi alternatif.

Apakah hukum nasional di beberapa negara telah mengatur jelas tentang bagaimana upaya hukum dalam rangka reparasi terhadap korban pelanggaran hak asasi manusia? Sebagai contoh di Indonesia hanya mengenal istilah kompensasi, restitusi, dan rehabilitasi yang tidak lain merupakan bentuk khusus dari reparasi.

Human rights bear citizen demands as owner of rights to state. Most important obligation of state to human rights, that is :
1. the duty to abstain from infringing upon human rights;
2. the duty to guarantee respect of these rights.

Reparation to victim collision of human rights questioning national law effort and international law effort represent law issue. Each collision of human right represent from obligation of second human rights.

Human rights is rights law hence there must be legal effort, so that victim can go through legal effort pursuant to consideration which pursuant to its collision type or form. As for pursuant to international law, state conducting collision of human rights account to sue internationally. Applying of international sanction so that state trespasser of human rights reparation to victim can become alternative.

What national law in some state have arranged clear about how legal effort in order to reparation to victim collision of human rights? ForExample in Indonesia only recognizing compensation term, restitution, and rehabilitate which is not other represent special form of reparation.

POSISI PENTING HUKUM KONTRAK INTERNASIONAL (important position of international contract law)

2009-02-18T04:06:00.000-08:00

Kontrak internasional saat ini merupakan aktivitas terpenting yang dilakukan oleh para pengusaha atau pedagang di dunia. Mereka membeli produk di suatu negara dan menjualnya di negara ketiga atau di negaranya. Bentuk dan isi kontrak pun cukup luas sehingga perkembangannya semakin cepat.

Saat ini kontrak telah pula berkembang dan memuat transaksi di bidang jasa, seperti kontrak konstruksi, kontrak di bidang transportasi dan telekomunikasi, kontrak jasa perbankan dan asuransi, jasa pariwisata, jasa entertainment, dan lain-lain. Berkembangnya ruang lingkup kontrak tersebut, khususnya transaksi perdagangan atau bisnis yang modern, sehingga kebutuhan hukum mengenai kontrak semakin nyata, namun aturan-aturan hukum yang dirumuskan secara formal belum cukup berkembang. Hukum yang mengatur bidang ini mengalami kesulitan karena kelemahan hukum itu sendiri.

Perkembangan teknik-teknik perdagangan yang cepat kadang kala sulit dibarengi dengan perkembangan hukum yang mengakomodirnya. Beberapa kepentingan negara lain meliputi masalah hukum pajak, kepabeanan, perlindungan lingkungan, kesehatan, keselamatan manusia, masalah standarisasi, labelisasi atau sertifikasi, hingga masalah yang terkait sengketa dan peradilan. Masing-masing negara harus memikirkan hal tersebut, yaitu bagaimana aturan hukum yang terkait dengan aktivitas kontrak internasional dapat terpenuhi.

International contract in this time represent all important activity which conducted by all merchant or entrepreneur in world. They buy product in a state and selling it in third state or in its state. Form and content even also enough wide so that its growth faster.

In this time contract had also expanded and load transaction in service sector, like construction contract, contract in transportation sector and telecomunications, banking service contract and insurance, tourism service, service of entertinment, and others. Expanding of it contract scope, speciality commerce transaction or modern business, so that requirement of law conceming contract progressively reality, but formulated law other not yet enough expanded. Law arranging this area find difficulties because weakness of itself law.

Growth of commerce techniques which quickly difficult once in a while followed with growth of law accomodating it. Some importance of other state cover the problem of lease law, tollbooth, protection of environment, health, safety of human being, problem of standarisation, labelisation or sertification, till the problem of related of dispute and jurisdiction. Each state have to think of mentioned, that is now how law order which telated to international contract activity earn fufilled.

PERKEMBANGAN HAK ASASI MANUSIA DI INDONESIA (growth of human rights in Indonesia)

2009-02-17T03:22:00.000-08:00

Pelanggaran tidak saja dilakukan oleh penguasa terhadap rakyat, melainkan juga terjadi dalam hubungan antara sesama anggota masyarakat. Dalam suasana reformasi di Indonesia, tidak jarang wacana hak asasi manusia memicu debat publik yang tidak berkesudahan. Selain memberikan pencerahan, debat ini juga menimbulkan kebingungan. Karena penyalahgunaan isu hak asasi manusia hanya dapat diuraikan jika pemahaman yang memadai tentang gagasan awal, konsep dan norma-norma hak asasi manusia telah dimiliki.

Collision is not even conducted by power to people, but also happened in link between society member humanity. In reform situation in Indonesia, not ralely human right discourse trigger public debate which do not have outcome. Besides giving clarification, this debate also generate muzziness. Because abuse of human right issue can only be elaborated if understanding of adequate about idea early, human right norms and concept have been owned.

MEMBANGUN KESATUAN HUKUM NASIONAL (build unity of national law)

2009-02-16T05:30:00.000-08:00

Sebagai Negara berkembang, Indonesia mempunyai keinginan yang kuat untuk melaksanakan pembangunan di segala bidang, termasuk pembangunan bidang hukum, guna menunjang dan mengatur pembangunan bidang ekonomi. Pembangunan perekonomian Indonesia tidak selalu diikuti oleh perencanaan dan pembentukan hukum yang menunjang dan mengatur perekonomian tersebut.

Sampai dengan saat ini, aspek-aspek kehidupan bermasyarakat, berbangsa dan bernegara, terutama pembangunan hukum nasional sangat terabaikan. Kebutuhan tentang peraturan perundang-undangan yang harmonis dan terintegrasi menjadi sangat diperlukan untuk mewujudkan ketertiban, menjamin kepastian dan perlindungan hukum.

As Developing countries, Indonesia have strong desire to execute development in all sector, including development in law sector, utilize to support and arrange development in economic sector. Development of economic of Indonesia don't always followed by planning and forming of law which supporting and arranging the economic.

Up to in this time, societal life aspects, nation and state, especially development of national law very uncared. requirement about regulation which harmonious law and integrated to become very needed to realize orderliness, guarantying rule of law and protection of law.

ILMU HUKUM (law science)

2009-02-15T01:14:00.000-08:00

Ilmu hukum mencakup dan membicarakan segala hal yang berhubungan dengan hukum. Demikian luasnya masalah yang dicakup oleh ilmu hukum ini, sehingga sempat memancing pendapat orang untuk mengatakan bahwa "batas-batasnya tidak dapat ditentukan".

Law science include and discuss every thing related to law. That way broadness of problem of included by law science, so that have time to fish opinion of people to say that "its boundarys cannot be determined".