Immunity Rights in Public Laws for Indonesia’s Handling of Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

This paper discusses about the regulation of immunity rights that are given to government officials in their
response to the outbreak of COVID-19 in Indonesia, seen from the perspective of guilt theory and public
laws. This right to legal immunity was created with the issuance of Government Regulation in Lieu of Law
(Perppu) Number 1 of Year 2020, which was approved and enacted by the People’s Representative Council
of the Republic of Indonesia into law by the ratification of Law Number 2 of Year 2020. Article 27 explicitly
states that government officials, in their execution of this Government Regulation in Lieu of Law, cannot
be prosecuted civilly or criminally if the execution of their tasks is based on good faith and is in line with
the stipulations of legal regulations. This paper uses the normatif legal research with the statute approach
and the conceptual approach. The research results shows that there is a certain recognition of regulations
regarding immunity rights. This is affirmed by a verdict of the Constitutional Court, by which according
to the Constitutional Court, regulation of immunity rights is not in conflict with the concept of rule of law,
with several conditions. In addition, although several stipulations in Indonesian positive law that provide
immunity prevent a person from being prosecuted criminally while performing their duties, at a practical
level, the specifically provided immunity is meaningless if the person in question fulfills the elements of an
article that stipulates a criminal act, because the intention of a person is the essence of an act, and judges in
court will decide the matter.