Decree of the People's Consultative Assembly as the legal basis in the lawmaking process (analysis of the Decree of the People's Consultative Assembly of the Republic of Indonesia No. XVI/MPR/1998 on the Political Economy in terms of Economic Democracy)

This article discusses the validity of the Decree of the People's Consultative Assembly (Tap MPR) as the legal basis in the lawmaking process. Before the amendment of the 1945 Constitution, Tap MPR bound the legislature so that it was commonly used as the legal basis in the lawmaking process. After the amendment, only Tap MPR No. XVI-MPR-1998 on Political Economy in terms of Economic Democracy was used as the legal basis. This is because Law No. 12 of 2011 does not mention its position exactly as the legal basis, even though Article 7 puts Tap MPR as a type and in hierarchy of legislation and Figure 41 of Appendix II determines that the legal basis of legislation must be at the same level or higher. Of more than 54 Tap MPRs used as the legal basis of 228 laws from 1961 until 2014, several are still valid, including Tap MPR on Economic Democracy. Tap MPR as a further elaboration of a constitutional mandate should be used as a legal basis in the lawmaking process formally as well as in direction setting for law materially so that development policies are in line with the state purpose outlined in the Constitution. This article, based on normative juridical research, focuses on the research literature to examine and analyse the principles of the law, legal systematics, and synchronization of law. Data were analysed using descriptive qualitative methods in order to obtain the certain understanding of which Tap MPR can be used as a legal basis in the lawmaking process.