Reforming the Statute of Limitations under Indonesia’s New Criminal Code: Toward a Modern Criminal Justice System

Bagus Hendradi Kusuma (Faculty of Law, Universitas Diponegoro, Semarang, Indonesia)
Barda Nawawi Arief (Faculty of Law, Universitas Diponegoro, Semarang, Indonesia)
Pujiyono Pujiyono (Faculty of Law, Universitas Diponegoro, Semarang, Indonesia)
Ridwan Arifin (Faculty of Law, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain)
Izan Mateo Cassandro (Sociedad Civil de Derecho y Políticas Públicas, Barcelona, Spain)

Journal of Law and Legal Reform
Vol. 7 No. 2 (2026): April, 2026

The statutes of limitations are an essential aspect of criminal law because they help balance the certainty, rationality, and efficiency of the field. However, legal rules concerning time, the complexity of crimes, and changing expectations for victims have come into question. This paper analyzes the new Indonesian criminal code (often called Law No. 1 of 2023), its limitations and regulations, and its contribution to the Modernization of the criminal justice system. The primary question this research seeks to answer is to what extent the justice system’s modernity adequately addresses the challenges of modernizing criminal justice. This study aims to integrate the reasoning, justification, and impact of the regulation of limitations in the new Indonesian criminal code. Employing a normative legal approach, this study is based on the Statute, Conceptual, and systematic and structured analyses, and comparative in nature, to examine the unification, direction, and legal policy of the limitations regulation in the new Indonesian criminal code. Statutes of limitations constitute an essential element of criminal law as they balance legal certainty, fairness, and efficiency in criminal prosecution. However, rapid social change, increasingly complex crimes, and evolving expectations regarding victims’ rights have challenged traditional approaches to limitation periods. This study examines the regulation of statutes of limitations in Indonesia’s New Criminal Code (Law No. 1 of 2023) and evaluates their role in modernizing the criminal justice system. Using normative legal research, this study analyzes the legal policy underpinning the reform of limitation periods through statutory, conceptual, and comparative approaches. The findings indicate that the new Criminal Code introduces a differentiated limitation system based on the seriousness of offenses, reflecting a shift from purely procedural justice toward substantive justice. The reform strengthens legal certainty, supports the effective prosecution of complex crimes, and enhances victim protection. Nevertheless, the success of this reform will depend on consistent judicial interpretation and the institutional capacity of law enforcement agencies.