Exploring the Intersection of Common Law and Criminal Justice System: Implications for Protecting Freedom of Speech in Indonesia

Freedom of speech (FoS) is stated as an "international human right" by the United Nations (UN). The right to FoS has been incorporated in "The Universal Declaration of Human Rights" (UDHR) and ICCPR (Art. 19). Moreover, different principles of common law also protect the right to FoS, in contrast to civil law, which mainly focuses on the written laws and regulations. The main aim of this juridical approach is to determine the intersection of Common Law and the Criminal Justice System, focusing on its implications for protecting Freedom of Speech in Indonesia. For this purpose, the required data is collected from different legal documents, legislations, laws, case law, related books, and journals. This paper mainly focuses on the freedom of speech (FoS) within the context of the Constitution and other laws in Indonesia, the implications of Common Law Principles to protect FoS in Indonesia, and the challenges faced by the criminal justice system to protect FoS in Indonesia. The results obtained from this study showed that in Indonesia, the Constitution implies certain restrictions of FoS against the government of Indonesia, preventing the press and public from expressing their views. After the ratification of UDHR and ICCPR, still, no transparency has been promoted within the context of FoS in the constitution. Therefore, the implementation of different common law principles such as the right to information has been observed within the context of FoS in the Constitution. However, different challenges are also faced by the government in promoting the right to FoS such as a lack of law enforcement agencies. Thus, it is recommended that international human rights standards should be maintained in reforming the legal framework of Indonesia to promote the right to FoS.