Pancasila as the first and foremost source of laws: A dignified justice philosophy

Abstract

For the Indonesian legal system, Pancasila is the first and foremost source of laws. Pancasila has been regarded as the ultimate or principal source of all the sources of laws, which has its legal force to govern the legal system of the Republic of Indonesia. In the past when the nation state of Indonesia had not been formed or was still in a state of divided sub-nations occupying the archipelago, it was considered as the Kingdom of the Netherland’s colony and was known as “Hindia Belanda”; the source of law of the Kingdom of the Netherlands was in the main, authomatically regarded as the sub-nations occupying the archipelago’s source of laws. Indonesian jurists must stop making any reference to their system by pointing to sources such as: common law, civil law, socialist law, roman law, canonical law, hamurabi law or religious law which was in force in the past or is currently. However, as the character of Pancasila Legal System is inclusive, reference to the legal systems of any civilised nation can still be made in order to absolve the legal ideas in the other legal system.