Progressive Legal Thinking in Achieving Justice in Judges' Decisions

As a judicial power institution independent in upholding the law, the authority of the court must be realized to meet the sense of justice in society, which is the ideal manifestation of Indonesia as a state of law. In Law Number 48 of 2009 concerning Judicial Power, Article 3 paragraphs (1) and (2) state that in carrying out their duties and functions, judges and constitutional judges are obliged to maintain judicial independence by prohibiting any interference from parties outside the judiciary in judicial matters. In exercising judicial power, judges have a great responsibility to decide cases that reflect certainty and justice for those seeking justice. The issues surrounding judicial decisions that overturn the logic of societal justice not only give rise to skepticism and pessimism toward law enforcement but also impact the decline in the authority of the courts, which in turn tarnishes the "face" of the law reflected in law enforcement practices. Let's just say the classic case that is often used as an example in law faculty lectures, namely the case of Sengkon and Karta, who had to languish behind bars due to "malpractice" in the judicial process, which later became a "legend" of miscarriages of justice in Indonesia. Another case that turned our legal logic upside down is the case of Lanjar, who was imprisoned because his wife died after falling from the motorcycle Lanjar was riding. Satjipto Rahardjo emphasized the importance of uniting the forces of progressive law to combat the status quo of legal schools of thot that have been applied in the Indonesian legal system for so long, especially in producing fair judicial decisions. This research falls under normative legal research. The research approach is normative jurisprudence, which aims to uncover the scientific logic from a normative perspective. The data sources used in this study were obtained from primary data, secondary data, and tertiary data. The primary data used in this normative juridical research were data obtained from literature studies, using legislation and court decisions as media. Secondary data came from books, magazines, newspapers, articles, journals, internet media, and other references that supported the research. Tertiary data is supporting legal material that provides guidance and explanation for primary and secondary legal materials. Tertiary legal materials include information sources such as legal dictionaries, Indonesian language dictionaries, and encyclopedias. The data was analyzed qualitatively to obtain a description of progressive legal thinking in realizing justice in judges' decisions. The application of law changes from time to time. The purpose of this improvement is how to realize substantive law so that justice can be achieved. The positivistic way of judging often fails to achieve substantive justice, especially for the weak and marginalized parties. A modern legal system based on the spirit of liberalism and capitalism will clearly only benefit the strong, both economically and politically. A distinctive feature of the modern legal system is its method of legal reasoning, which focuses on the text of the law.