Jakarta, Literasihukum.com – The Indonesian legal system is entering a new and historic era. As of January 2, 2026, the Criminal Code Criminal Law (KUHP) or Law Number 1 of 2023 officially came into full effect, ending the dominance of Wetboek van Strafrecht (WvS), a colonial legacy that has been entrenched for more than a century. This momentum is not merely a change of legal texts, but a fundamental paradigm shift from retributive justice towards corrective, rehabilitative, and restorative justice.
Entering the first week of the National Criminal Code's enactment, public and legal practitioner attention is focused on the readiness of law enforcement officials in the field. This transition demands rapid adaptation, given the significant changes in the principle of legality and the recognition of the living law . The provision regarding the living law in society poses its own challenges at the implementation level, given the need for strict parameters to avoid legal uncertainty or over-criminalization in the regions.
In addition to material issues, the formal aspects related to sentencing guidelines are also a hot topic of discussion. Judges are now required to further explore the values of justice by considering new, more humane sentencing guidelines, including prioritizing fines and social work for minor crimes, instead of short-term imprisonment. This change is expected to overcome the classic problem of correctional institutions experiencing overcapacity (overcrowding), a systemic problem that the old Criminal Code failed to resolve.
On the other hand, the Constitutional Court is predicted to once again become the mainstay for justice seekers who feel their constitutional rights have been violated by articles in the new Criminal Code . Although judicial review has been carried out several times during the vacatio legisperiod, the actual implementation in the field has the potential to create new specific constitutional losses (actual case). The dynamic between the application of new norms by law enforcement and constitutional interpretation by the Constitutional Court will be an interesting legal dialectic to observe throughout 2026.
For the wider community, the enactment of this National Criminal Code is a call to increase legal literacy. The understanding that criminal law is no longer merely a tool for state revenge, but rather a means of protecting society and balancing the social order, must continue to be intensified. Legal Literacy is committed to continuing to oversee this historical transition, ensuring that the spirit of decolonization of criminal law carried by this law is truly realized in fair and dignified law enforcement.
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