Dekonstruksi Makna Jabatan Politik: Kritik Terhadap Doktrin Open Legal Policy Mahkamah Konstitusi dalam Persyaratan Pendidikan Calon Anggota Legislatif

Moh. Hariyanto

Prosiding Seminar Hukum Aktual Fakultas Hukum Universitas Islam Indonesia
Vol. 4 No. 4 JULI 2026

The educational requirements of prospective members of the House of Representatives (at least high school) in Law No. 7 of 2017 are the object of testing at the Constitutional Court (MK). The petitioners argued that the standard was too low for the complex legislative function, but the Constitutional Court consistently rejected the doctrine of Open Legal Policy. This research method using normative law (doctrinal legal research) uses legislative, case, and conceptual approaches, by analyzing several Constitutional Court decisions as well as Alexy's theory of proportionality and Habermas' deliberative democracy. The novelty of this research lies in the integration of criticism of inconsistencies in the implementation of Open Legal Policy by the Constitutional Court comparatively across decisions (age requirements, parliamentary thresholds, thresholds for candidacy of regional heads) as well as the incorporation of proportionality tests and other related theories to deconstruct the Constitutional Court's arguments about political positions, experts who have so far escaped academic attention in testing the educational requirements of legislative candidates that the Constitutional Court should have been more judicial activism rather than restraint. The Constitutional Court interprets the education requirements as an Open Legal Policy on the basis of the protection of the right to be a candidate, the representative nature of legislative positions, and the existence of experts. The use of this doctrine is inconsistent because in other cases (presidential age requirements, parliamentary thresholds, thresholds for candidacy for regional heads) the Constitutional Court actually intervenes in legislation policies. The arguments of experts also do not reflect the institutional reality of the House of Representatives and have the potential to create technocratic displacement. The use of the Open Legal Policy doctrine by the Constitutional Court is inconsistent and has the potential to result in constitutional abdication. The Constitutional Court should act judicial activism with a proportionality test to assess the balance between political rights and the quality of legislation.