<![CDATA[The reform of Indonesian criminal law represents a historical process of legal transformation that has evolved from the colonial period to the enactment of Law Number 1 of 2023 on the Criminal Code, which entered into force on 2 January 2026. This study aims to examine the transformation of Indonesian criminal law through the perspectives of decolonization, nationalization, and modernization and to assess its relevance to the development of the national criminal justice system. This study employs a normative-historical legal research method using historical, statutory, and conceptual approaches. The legal materials consist of legislation, historical documents, legal books, and scholarly journal articles. The findings demonstrate that Indonesian criminal law reform has not developed as a linear process, but rather as a process of reconstruction involving the efforts to overcome the colonial legal legacy, establish a national legal identity, and respond to developments in modern criminal law. Decolonization is reflected in efforts to end reliance on the colonial criminal code, while nationalization developed gradually through Law Number 1 of 1946 and Law Number 73 of 1958 and culminated in the enactment of the New Indonesian Criminal Code. Modernization is reflected in changes in sentencing objectives, the strengthening of alternative sanctions, recognition of living law, corporate criminal liability, and a restorative orientation. Thus, the enactment of the New Indonesian Criminal Code does not mark the end of criminal law reform but constitutes a new stage requiring regulatory, institutional, and legal-cultural harmonization.]]>
Copyrights © 2026
