The conflicts and disputes that have occurred within professional advocate organizations have yet to be resolved. Each professional advocate organization believes that its organization is the one that is legally established, recognized by the state, and has the right to exercise its authority as a professional advocate organization as stipulated in Law No. 18 of 2003 concerning Advocates ("Advocate Law”). Both KAI (Indonesian Advocates Congress) and Peradi (Indonesian Advocates Association), are competing to hold advocate courses (training) as well as advocate exams, inaugurations and oaths of advocates, legal recognition of the legitimacy of their respective organizations as the sole body of advocate professional organizations and their authority to hold advocate courses (training), advocate exams. This fact is no longer surprising, because there is no legal certainty in the Advocate Law which does not explicitly state the name of the sole body of advocate organizations that are given the authority to carry out all activities from advocate courses (training), advocate inaugurations and oaths of advocates. There are at least 4 advocate organizations that claim to be the sole body, namely Ikadin, AAI, Peradi and KAI.
Even though there are provisions governing the granting of professional certificates which can only be implemented by higher education institutions as regulated in the provisions of Article 21 paragraph (2) of Law No. 20 of 2003 concerning the National Education System ("National Education System Law”) which states the following:
"Individuals, organizations, or educational providers other than universities are prohibited from awarding academic, professional, or vocational degrees."
Given these provisions, it is clear that amendments to the Advocates Law must be implemented immediately to address this legal uncertainty. It is appropriate that professional certification of advocates be carried out by an independent national certification body/institution appointed and given special authority by the state, namely the Government of the Republic of Indonesia. Unlike what is currently happening, what is happening is the commercialization of the implementation of courses (training) and advocate exams and efforts to produce as many young advocates as possible as a form of competition between advocate organizations and as evidence that advocate professional organizations with greater quantity will be more recognized by the state and society. The absence of a supervisory function from the state and other organizations relevant to advocate education towards the Peradi organization has also led to abuse of authority so that there is no transparency and accountability regarding the management of its finances collected from course (training) and exam fees.
Amendments to the Advocates Law must be carried out immediately by eliminating the provisions "the only forum for the legal profession" because it is no longer in accordance with reality. The DPR must have the courage to make a decision so that all advocate organizations that form federation of bar association This then allows professional organizations of advocates to be established, and is given the authority to conduct courses (training), examinations, oaths, and inaugurations jointly. However, all activities carried out by these professional organizations of advocates cannot be left without state supervision. As is known, the practice carried out by the Netherlands and England, where the state, namely the government, clearly regulates this in law (advocaten wet and Legal Services Act) the formation of a supervisory body and listing the names of organizations that have the authority to organize advocate exams and advocate courses, as stated in advocaten wet Article 9C which expressly designates NOVA (Nederlandse Order of Van Advocaten) as the organizer of the advocate exam and supervised by Board of Governors. Likewise in England, which has explicitly listed its names such as The Law Society, The General Council of The Bar, The Master of The Faculties, The Institute of Legal Executives, The Council for Licensed Conveyancers, The Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys, The Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys and The Association of Law Costs Draftsmen which in practice is supervised by Legal Service BoardThis is where the Advocate Law loses its link to the advocate courses and exams, which were originally administered by the Supreme Court of the Republic of Indonesia and then delegated to advocate organizations. This should not be absolute and unilateral, as if only certain advocate organizations had the authority. It should still be supervised in determining course fees and administering advocate exams.
Therefore, what is needed is state involvement, namely the Government of the Republic of Indonesia, to oversee the curriculum provided to advocate organizations in courses (training) through to inauguration and oath-taking. This is done by establishing a National Certification Body. This body's members consist of representatives from the Ministry of Law and Human Rights, the Ministry of National Education, Advocates' Organizations, other Legal Professional Organizations (IPR, Capital Markets, Banking, etc.), Law Enforcement Organizations (such as IKAHI and PERSAJA), and the Legal Society (Law Society (such as PERSAHI), the Supreme Court of the Republic of Indonesia, and universities/colleges. These bodies will jointly oversee the entire curriculum, standardization of exam passing, and inauguration and swearing-in, ensuring that all fees collected by each advocate professional organization are accountable and the curriculum improves in quality.
It would be good if we take an example from a country that has inherited many legal regulations, such as the Netherlands, which was an early adopter of legal examinations and courses (training) conducted by legal organizations. As a democratic and liberal country, legal courses (training) and examinations in the Netherlands involve the role of the state, namely the government (Minister of Justice) in their implementation by establishing a supervisory body that supervises the curriculum and legal examinations, as outlined in Article 9d. Wet lawyers which states the following:
- “A Board of Governors shall supervise the study program and the examination. The Board of Governors shall have five members, three of which are to be appointed by the Minister of Justice and two by the Assembly of Delegates. The Minister of Justice shall also elect the chairman from among the members.”
In these provisions, it is expressly stated that the Netherlands involves 5 Governor's appointed by the Dutch Minister of Justice and the program must be approved Governor's and direction from the Dutch Minister of Justice. This is also the case with other countries in Western Europe, which have different legal systems that also regulate state involvement in supervising Solicitor Act 1974 regulated in Article 2 which states as follows:
“The Society, with the concurrence of the Lord Chancellor, the Lord Chief Justice and the Master of the Rolls, may make regulations (in this Act referred to as “Training regulations”) concerning Education and training for person seeking to be admitted or to practice as solicitors.”
With the establishment of the National Certification Body as a supervisory body involving the state, this is certainly the first step to ending the endless feuds between advocate organizations. Legal certainty will be more realized because the formation of a supervisory body and government involvement will be expressly stated in the Advocates Law. Conflicts between advocate professional organizations that always question authority will no longer occur, because all advocate organizations can conduct all courses (training) and advocate examinations jointly, provided that all course (training) curriculums and examination standards have been approved by a body formed jointly by the state cq government, advocate organizations and law enforcement. In this way, each organization will compete healthily to build good management of advocate professional organizations as well as educational curricula, courses and advocate examinations to produce quality advocates who are free and independent as a profession. noble officeNot all law graduates are qualified and talented advocates, so only qualified candidates can be appointed as advocates. The goal is quality, not quantity, of advocates who can serve, defend, and provide legal advice and opinions to the public and those seeking justice.
Chairman of Peradin and Lecturer at UPH Faculty of Law
Dr. Frans H. Winarta
