July 25, 2011 · 22:25

The Lighter Side: Brush up on your culture before taking your bar exam

Usually, when we are considering nominees to the Supreme Court, we’re concerned about the judge’s education, competence, and integrity. Now, Bandung’s Parahyangan Catholic University Professor Arief Sidharta, a member of Indonesia’s Judicial Commission, proposes we should also consider a nominee’s sense of culture. In interviewing candidates, he asks them about their knowledge of art and singing. Arief defends his unorthodox focus by noting:

“It’s about appreciating cultural values, like singing,” he said. “People who appreciate art and culture tend to be more sensitive to what’s going on in their surroundings, and this is exactly the quality that we need in our legal practitioners.”

It’s an interesting argument, and certainly not one that graces the pages of comparative judicial politics scholarship. It’s also nice to hear something about Indonesia’s courts besides the rampant corruption.

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Filed under indonesia

July 16, 2011 · 05:27

Limit justice to save justice

According to The Jakarta Post, the Indonesian House is considering reforms to the Supreme Court law. One of the proposed reforms is particularly interesting: limiting litigants’ right of appeal. In recent years, the Supreme Court’s caseload has reached phenomenal levels, as high as 17,000 per year. Some of these are relatively minor cases requiring only per curium decisions, but still they bog the court down. As Ronald Rofiandri from the Center for Legal and Policy Studies (PSHK) noted, “Not all cases should be brought to the appellate court, for example, divorce cases.” Reducing the court’s workload could go a long way to ensuring that it spends the necessary time on the more important cases in its docket. It could also potentially reduce corruption by reducing rent-seeking opportunities (after all, fewer cases means fewer litigants to extort). In short, this could be one feasible reform that could lead to a dramatic improvement in Indonesia’s notorious judiciary.

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Filed under indonesia, Supreme Court

July 15, 2011 · 00:14

Time to find Burgos…

Since his disappearance in 2007, Jonas Burgos has been the poster child for the problem of enforced disappearances in the Philippines. While the Philippine Supreme Court under Chief Justice Reynato Puno had expressed its support for resolving these cases, and even promulgated new writs to help, thus far it hasn’t been able to bring the perpetrators to justice, much less find Burgos. Now, the Supreme Court has ordered the Armed Forces of the Philippines to produce Burgos… or else. Given the power of the AFP, it’s not clear whether the Supreme Court can enforce its order. Indeed, the Court also suggested that the AFP should be should be held in contempt for not complying with earlier orders to produce documents related to other disappearances. Still, the decision is perhaps a good sign that the Supreme Court under the new chief justice, Renato Corona, hasn’t abandoned his predecessor’s mission. Read more at PhilStar.

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Filed under human rights, Human Rights Commission, Philippines

July 14, 2011 · 23:41

If a soldier commits a crime…

It’s not uncommon for justice systems to permit the military to try their own soldiers in a separate courts-martial system. However, in more democratic countries, the constitution generally grants defendants the right to appeal their cases to the regular judiciary. Moreover, the military justice system’s jurisdiction is usually limited to incidents that occurred during the course in the line of duty.

By contrast, Myanmar’s new constitution establishes an autonomous system of military justice, in which not even the Supreme Court can exercise review of courts-martial. In an article posted on Mizzima, U Myo and James Tager argue that the Constitutional Tribunal can and should limit the military justice system’s jurisdiction and ensure that the regular courts can exercise review. While I suspect some of their prescriptions are somewhat idealistic, to say the least, they nonetheless provide a useful overview of the problems Myanmar’s military justice system might face. You can read the whole article here.

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Filed under Burma, military justice, Myanmar

July 10, 2011 · 16:06

There they go again…

As readers might have heard, Thaksin’s sister, Yingluck Shinawatra, and the Puea Thai party won an overwhelming victory in Thailand’s July 3 elections. While military leaders ruled out a coup, the defeated Democrat Party is asking the Election Commission to file charges against Puea Thai. In particular, the Democrats want the Constitutional Court to dissolve Puea Thai because of Thaksin’s involvement in the campaign and allegations of “corruption.” According to the news I’ve seen thus far, this “corruption” largely amounts to Puea Thai candidates handing free noodles during campaign events. So far, the EC hasn’t actually filed a case against Puea Thai yet, but it’s only a matter of time.

Thus far, history looks set to repeat itself. Of course, back in 2008, the Constitutional Court was instrumental in the PPP’s downfall. Last year, the Court refused to dissolve the Democrat Party on similar charges. There’s no reason to think the justices have changed their basic political outlook since the 2008 cases; I haven’t heard of any major changes in court personnel, nor have Puea Thai allies been in a position to appoint new justices. However, if the Court dissolves Puea Thai now, it risks cementing a reputation for partisanship. I’ll definitely follow this case to  see how it develops and if it actually goes to trial.

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Filed under Thailand, Thaksin