RIGHTS AS FLOATING SIGNIFIER: A LACLAUIAN READING OF EDUCATION RIGHTS IN INDONESIA’S CONSTITUTIONAL COURT
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31078/consrev1211Keywords:
constitutional interpretation, constitutional court, critical constitutional lawAbstract
Within legal discourse, as the constitutional rights are formed in abstract form, constitutional courts then occupy a central position in defining the meaning of constitutional rights, including the right to education. The Court has expressed the right to education in fundamentally different ways in a number of rulings. The court views the right to education as a social right that necessitates state accountability. However, the rights to education are characterized as being limited by financial resources. This study, which looks at how the Court has interpreted and reinterpreted the constitutional right to education, is based on this tension. Based on this inquiry, the study employs a socio-legal methodology that integrates Ernesto Laclau's discourse theory with the legal normativity ingrained in legal studies. According to this framework, the divergence of constitutional interpretation demonstrates that the right to education is a floating signifier, meaning that it is contingently re-articulated by the Court through competing logics of what we refer to as emancipation and domination logics rather than having a fixed meaning. These court decisions show the variety of constitutional interpretation; sometimes it takes an exploitative approach that maintains the status quo and validates existing power structures, while other times it takes an emancipatory approach that seeks to improve access and eradicate structural injustices. The study promotes a more politically aware explanation of constitutional interpretation by tracking this tension and emphasizing how the meaning of rights is constantly debated rather than settled.
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