HAKIKAT ILMU PERUNDANG UNDANGAN

Summary

The lecture explains the nature and scope of legislative science (ilmu perundang-undangan), outlining its development in Indonesia and comparing the approaches of several legal scholars.

Development and key figures

In Indonesia, the lecture credits A. Hamid S. Attamimi with pioneering the deeper study of legislative science. It also highlights Maria Farida Indrati and Bagir Manan as influential scholars who helped develop the field.

Internationally, the lecture discusses the approaches of Peter Noll, Jürgen Rödig, and a third scholar whose name is unclear in the subtitles.

Three approaches to legislative science

• Peter Noll: Legislative science studies the content and form of legal norms and develops criteria to guide the creation of rational legislation. It asks how legislation can respond effectively to social conditions. This approach treats legislative science mainly as part of legal science: social phenomena are abstracted and translated into legal norms.
• Jürgen Rödig: Legislative science is multidisciplinary, drawing on the perspectives and methods of other fields to understand how legislation arises and develops. The lecture describes two aspects:
  • Static: Formulating the normative content of rules and setting parameters for human behavior toward other people and the environment.
  • Dynamic: Choosing among possible rules in response to social problems. A problem inventory list helps identify and compare alternative norms for inclusion in legislation.
• The third scholar discussed: Legislative science is an interdisciplinary study of lawmaking by the state. It is narrow in that it focuses on the formation of state regulations, but broad in the methods and knowledge it draws upon. For example, a health-quarantine bill requires input from health specialists as well as legislative drafters.

Fields that can inform legislation

The lecture identifies several relevant areas:

• Sociology of law: How law develops in society, including legal culture and people’s legal behavior.
• Legal politics: Choices about what the law should be, including the relationship between existing law and desired future law.
• Legal dogmatics: Legal doctrines and theories developed by scholars.
• Planning and public-administration sciences, along with other disciplines relevant to the subject matter of a proposed regulation.

Main lesson

Good legislation requires more than drafting legal language. Legislators must understand the social problem, consider alternative normative solutions, and draw on relevant legal and non-legal expertise so that the resulting rules are rational and suitable for their purpose.

The lecturer asks students to write up the material, submit it through the faculty’s lecture site, and keep a digital copy for later study.

Speakers and sources featured

• Speaker: An unnamed lecturer presenting a law lecture associated with Atma Jaya University Yogyakarta.
• Scholars discussed or referenced: A. Hamid S. Attamimi, Maria Farida Indrati, Bagir Manan, Peter Noll, Jürgen Rödig, and Hans Kelsen.
• A further international scholar is mentioned, but the name is too garbled in the subtitles to identify confidently.