Strengthening the Dominus Litis Principle in Managing Evidence within Indonesia’s Criminal Procedure Reform

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-519-5_22How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Criminal Procedure; Dominus Litis Principle; Evidence

Abstract

In the criminal justice system, the management and handling of evidence are essential for uncovering the truth and safeguarding individual rights. However, due to legal ambiguities, Indonesia continues to face significant challenges in this area. This research aims to examine the importance of strengthening the dominus litis principle, which positions the public prosecutor as the controller of a criminal case. Employing a normative legal approach and qualitative analysis, this research employs a statutory, conceptual, and comparative approach. The findings reveal that, normatively, the current Criminal Procedure Code lacks explicit recognition of the dominus litis principle, resulting in fragmented law enforcement, weak institutional coordination, and frequent due process violations, particularly in the handling of evidence. In contrast, countries like Germany, Japan, and the United States have implemented systems in which prosecutorial authority is established from the investigative stage, ensuring both fairness and efficiency. The most significant finding is that, while Indonesia’s current framework structurally limits prosecutorial oversight during investigation, comparative models demonstrate that early and formal recognition of the prosecutor’s dominus litis role enhances both fairness and efficiency. Therefore, to enhance Indonesia’s criminal justice system, legal reform is needed, beginning with a comprehensive revision of the Criminal Procedure Code. The revised framework should explicitly affirm the role of the Public Prosecutor as dominus litis from the outset of the investigation to ensure stronger oversight, better coordination, and a more just legal process.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Aditia Setiawan
AU  - Adi Sulistiyono
AU  - Bambang Santoso
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/12/29
TI  - Strengthening the Dominus Litis Principle in Managing Evidence within Indonesia’s Criminal Procedure Reform
BT  - Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Law, Economics & good Governance (ICLAW 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 277
EP  - 288
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-519-5_22
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-519-5_22
ID  - Setiawan2025
ER  -