Analyzing the concept of incompleteness and ambiguity of norms in formal testing of laws at the constitutional court

Topan Yulia Pratama, Sudarsono, Herman Suryokumoro & Aan Eko Widiarto

Volume 5 Issue 1, March 2025

Abstract

The effectiveness, fairness, and legal certainty of Indonesia’s constitutional system are significantly undermined by the inadequacy and ambiguity of legislative standards. Deficiencies in legislative drafting, such as insufficient regulatory provisions and vague legal language, often contribute to this issue. This research examines the role of the Constitutional Court in addressing the incompleteness and ambiguity of legal norms through formal judicial review. By employing a normative legal research methodology with a descriptive-analytical approach, this study analyzes constitutional provisions and selected Constitutional Court decisions, including the judicial review of the Job Creation Law and the Revision of the Corruption Eradication Commission Law. The findings underscore the Constitutional Court’s pivotal role in safeguarding constitutional supremacy by providing interpretative guidance for unclear or incomplete legal standards. The Court has successfully identified procedural deficiencies in the legislative process that compromise transparency and public participation, as exemplified in Decision Number 91/PUU-XVIII/2020 concerning the Job Creation Law. However, this interpretative function frequently raises concerns about the limits of the Court’s jurisdiction. This study argues that legislative reform is imperative to minimize the occurrence of incomplete and ambiguous norms. It advocates for the enhancement of legislative drafting quality, the professionalization of legislators, and the reinforcement of public participation mechanisms. This research contributes to the broader discourse on the Constitutional Court’s function in mitigating systemic legislative deficiencies and fostering a more inclusive, responsive, and constitutionally grounded legal framework.

Keywords

Author information & Contribution

Topan Yulia Pratama. Corresponding author. Faculty of Law, Brawijaya University, Malang, Indonesia. Email: topan_yp@student.ub.ac.id

Sudarsono. Faculty of Law, Brawijaya University, Malang, Indonesia. Email: sudarsono@ub.ac.id

Herman Suryokumoro. Faculty of Law, Brawijaya University, Malang, Indonesia. Email: herman.suryo@ub.ac.id

Aan Eko Widiarto. Faculty of Law, Brawijaya University, Malang, Indonesia. Email: widiarto@ub.ac.id

“All authors equally contributed to the conception, design, preparation, data gathering and analysis, and writing of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.”

Disclosure statement

Funding

Institutional Review Board Statement

Data and Materials Availability

AI Declaration

The author declares the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) as an assistive tool in writing this paper. Specifically, the author used ChatGPT to assist in structuring the paper, identifying relevant literature, summarizing key points, and developing analyses based on the collected sources. Additionally, Quillbot was utilized for paraphrasing, enhancing language clarity, and restructuring sentences to align with the desired academic writing style. The author takes full responsibility in ensuring proper review and editing of contents generated using AI.

Notes

Acknowledgement

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Cite this article:

Pratama, T.Y., Sudarsono, Suryokumoro, H. & Widiarto, A.E. (2025). Analyzing the concept of incompleteness and ambiguity of norms in formal testing of laws at the constitutional court. International Review of Social Sciences Research, 5(1), 106-127. https://doi.org/10.53378/irssr.353148