Affirmation of the position of Pancasila in the indonesian legal system
Affirmation of the position of Pancasila in the indonesian legal system

Summary/Abstract: This study aims to reaffirm the position of Pancasila as a philosophische grondslag within the Indonesian constitutional system, amid ongoing academic debates regarding whether Pancasila should be understood as an ideology or as the foundation of the state underlying all existing legal norms. This interpretation is examined through President Soekarno’s speech on 1 June 1945, in which Pancasila was explicitly described as a philosophische grondslag and a weltanschauung. This research employs a normative legal method using conceptual, statutory, and historical approaches through the analysis of literature and secondary legal materials. The findings indicate that the term philosophische grondslag, within the context of Dutch language and political thought, refers to a philosophical foundation that embodies the fundamental values and ideals of a state, rather than a positive legal norm. Pancasila is therefore understood as a philosophical value system that reflects the worldview of the Indonesian people and serves as a source of inspiration and orientation for the formation of law. Accordingly, Pancasila should not be positioned as a staatfundamentalnorm, as this concept is more appropriately attributed to the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia as the highest basic norm within the legal hierarchy. Affirming Pancasila as a philosophische grondslag situates it as the philosophical foundation of the state, providing direction, meaning, and legitimacy for the formation and implementation of national law. Legal certainty regarding the status of Pancasila as the foundation of the state must therefore be consistently interpreted through constitutional provisions to avoid conceptual inconsistencies in placing Pancasila within the Indonesian legal system.

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