Philanthropic Justice as an Interpretive Framework in Noodweer Assessment: Tilamuta District Court Decision No.12/PID.B/2025/PN TMT

Suwitno Yutye Imran, Zein Samsia Ibrahim

Abstract


This article addresses the rigid and formalistic assessment of noodweer in Indonesian criminal law, which often neglects humanitarian values and leads to criminalizing victims who act in self-defence or defence of others. Although Law No. 1 of 2023, which entered into force on 2 January 2026, introduced reforms through Articles 34 and 43, the Tilamuta decision was rendered in 2025 and must therefore be assessed under Article 49 of the old Criminal Code. The new provisions are considered only for their prospective implications. The Tilamuta District Court Decision Number 12/PID.B/2025/PN TMT is treated as primary legal material because its reasoning allows examination of whether the court considered the defendant’s social and humanitarian motivations, without asserting that the judgment expressly adopted a philanthropic doctrine. The study analyses the judicial reasoning, formulates philanthropic justice as a Interpretive Framework, and assesses its implications for criminal law reform. Using normative legal research with statutory, case, conceptual, and comparative approaches, it examines the decision, the new Criminal Code, Dutch and German provisions, and relevant literature. The analysis finds that the judgment contains reasoning that may be read as responsive to philanthropic values but lacks a systematic framework. The article proposes philanthropic justice as a conceptual framework structured around four indicators: life preservation, humanity-based proportionality, adaptive subsidiarity, and priority for vulnerable groups. These indicators are intended to assist contextualized judicial assessment, though further development is needed to translate them into concrete legal tests. The study concludes that integrating philanthropic justice into noodweer doctrine can bridge formal legality and substantive justice, reduce legal uncertainty, and treat social-solidarity defendants fairly. It contributes to a more humane criminal law and judicial policy reform in Indonesia.

Keywords


Criminal Law Reform. Noodweer; Philanthropic Justice

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References


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DOI: https://doi.org/10.33756/jelta.v19i2.41547

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