Public Participation in Environmental Protection: Citizen Law Suits in the Indonesian Civil Justice System

Abstract

This article discusses public participation in the Indonesian civil justice system which aims to protect the interests of the environment. Citizen Law Suit (CLS) as the right to a good and healthy environment as a constitutional right guaranteed by the state. As a right of lawsuit, CLS is filed in a civil court which has the principle of legitimacy standi in yudisio (everyone can be a legitimate party in the trial), as long as they have sufficient legal interest (point d’interet, point d’action (have sufficient legal interest) to file a claim) by proving the argument or posita with evidence. This is different from CLS which does not base its claim on personal interests, but based on interests as citizens who have the right to a good and healthy environment with the claim in the petition that is improvement of government performance on a good and healthy environment The approach method used is a conceptual approach, departing from the idea that social ecological justice (eco-social) is inherent as the right to a good and healthy environment is a citizen’s human right. In the results and discussion shows that a civil justice system that does not recognize al CLS, starting to accept CLS based on the judge’s legal discovery (rechtsvinding) and overriding the point d’interet, point d’action principle.