I would like to write about the Legal Research in Indonesia in general.

In recent years, the regulation regarding Drone in Indonesia is one of the hot topics. I want to write about it on another occasion.

It is imperative to comply with Indonesian laws and regulations for doing business in Indonesia.

However, it is not easy to research relevant laws and regulations properly in Indonesia due to the following reasons.

１.  Bahasa Indonesia

Indonesian laws and regulations are basically written in Bahasa Indonesia and the Governments of the Republic of Indonesia does not generally provide English translation etc. For your Info, Indonesian Civil Code and Commercial Code published on April 30, 1847(the above picture’s book is English translation of Commercial Code and Company Act.) are still effective and written in Dutch. Now, Indonesian apply these codes by using translation.

２.  Accessibility to Laws

Some Laws are available in the internet, however, a lot of laws are not available for free. In such cases. we have to ask the competent government authority.

The legalized date, effective date and  promulgated date are stipulated in the regulation and it is published in state gazette. Basically the effective date is same to the promulgated date.

However, it sometimes happens in Indonesia that we cannot find the regulations in state gazette and/or the website of the competent authority even after the promulgated date.

When I worked for the Embassy of Japan in Indonesia and paid attention to the revision of the regulation, I had experiences to become to know the regulation a few weeks or months after the date of promulgation.

Even though the new laws are legally promulgated and effective, the laws are not known in public (governmental officials also do not know the laws.), and it is not applied practically.  It is so strange for us, however,  such situation sometimes happens in Indonesia. We have to understand it.

３.  Uncertainty of the contents of Laws

Not only in Indonesian laws, the contents of laws are sometimes unclear. As a feature of  Indonesian laws, there is “explanatory note” as a part of law, however, it often happens the contents is still uncertain for us whether the law is applied to the business or not.

In such cases, we have to wait the judgement of the Supreme Court, however, it takes a long time. Firstly, we should obtain the opinion of the competent authority.

In Japan, we can obtain the governmental opinion by phone call, on the other hand, it is difficult to contact the competent authority in Indonesia because we cannot get through to the office. In some cases. we have to visit the office directly.

In addition, the Ministerial regulations have been suddenly established/revised because there is no public comment procedure at the level of Ministerial Regulation in Indonesia.

Although such regulation is legally enacted, as a result of the lobbying by certain business groups and/or various governments, the Government of Indonesia recognizes the adverse impacts on Indonesian Economy and does not apply the regulation actually. In this case, the Government will revises it later.

We have to directly contact the competent authority to confirm how the regulation is applied because we cannot find it just by checking the articles of the laws.

As mentioned above, there is a language problem as well as a difficulty to obtain the regulations. Moreover,  there is the possibility that the regulation is not applied in fact.Therefore, it is required to research the regulation by professionals in advance.

(Disclaimer) I accept no responsibility for losses and/or damages that may arise from reliance upon information contained in this article. Full legal advice should be taken from a professional when dealing with specific situations.

弁護士　味村　祐作 Yusaku Mimura, Attorney at Law