The Constitutional Right to a Healthy Environment in Indonesia

Like many other countries, Indonesia has recently put the right to a ‘good and healthy environment’ into its Constitution. Also like many other countries, this right has been underutilised in its courts. This article demonstrates that underutilisation by examining the Constitutional Court cases in which the right has been mentioned. It then offers explanations for what we consider to be a conscious reluctance by lawyers and judges to use the right. Many of the reasons given to explain underutilisation or reluctance in the courts of other countries also help explain the Indonesian experience, including lack of judicial knowledge and difficulties in balancing competing rights. But additional factors are at play in Indonesia, including the political environment in which the Court operates, some of the Court’s decision-making practices, the way the right is worded in the Indonesian Constitution, and the preference of lawyers and judges for basing their arguments on generic constitutional rights rather than specific environmental rights.