Basically, an interpretation is something that cannot be avoided. This was stated by Van Bammelen and Van Hattum. Broadly speaking, there are four commonly used interpretation methods, namely:

Grammatical Interpretation, namely the meaning of the provisions of the law is interpreted by describing it according to everyday language.
Systematic Interpretation, namely interpreting the provisions of the law by connecting them with other legal regulations or with the entire legal system.
Historical Interpretation, which is the interpretation of the meaning of laws according to their occurrence by examining the history of the legislation.
Teleological/Sociological Interpretation, which is interpreting the meaning of laws in accordance with the purpose of the drafters of the law rather than the sound of the words of the law.

According to Sudikno Mertokusumo, interpretation can be distinguished into restrictive interpretation and extensive interpretation.

Restrictive interpretation is explaining a provision of law by limiting its scope, namely narrowing the meaning of a regulation by starting from its meaning according to language (grammatical interpretation, systematic interpretation). Meanwhile, extensive interpretation is exceeding the limits of understanding something according to grammatical interpretation (historical interpretation, teleological interpretation).

Another opinion was also put forward by Jan Remmelink adding several interpretations in law criminal.

First, creative interpretation, this interpretation is not extensive but rather restrictive. With this interpretation, the judge reveals a certain element that he considers contained in the criminal formulation, even though the element is not explicitly described in it.

Second, traditional interpretation, which is finding law by looking at a behavior in legal tradition.

Third, harmoniserende interpretatie, which is used to avoid disharmony or conflict between one regulation and other legislation.

Fourth, doctrinal interpretation, which is to strengthen argumentation by referring to a particular doctrine.

References

  • Eddy.O.S. Hiariej, Principles of Criminal Law, Cahaya Atma Pustaka, Yogyakarta, 2016.
  • Sudikno Mertokusumo, Legal Discovery, An Introduction, Liberty, Yogyakarta, 2001.