Judicial Pardon and Restorative Justice: Towards Corrective Sentencing in the Indonesian Criminal Law System

The essence of restorative justice lies in achieving a balanced fulfillment of criminal law objectives, which extend beyond mere legal certainty to encompass justice and societal benefit. Within this framework, judicial pardon defined as the judge’s authoritative discretion to grant forgiveness to an offender serves as a corrective response to the rigidity of the legality principle in the criminal justice system. This study employs a non-doctrinal paradigm with a descriptive approach to analyze the role of judicial pardon as a form of corrective sentencing in Indonesia’s criminal justice system. The findings indicate that a judicial pardon allows judges to render a verdict without imposing punishment when an offender is found guilty but, in the judge’s view, does not warrant penal sanction. Such verdicts differ fundamentally from acquittals, releases, or convictions, thereby establishing judicial pardon as a unique category of judgment. However, despite its recognition in the National Criminal Code, the absence of technical provisions in the Draft Criminal Procedure Code (RKUHAP) limits its practical application. Therefore, judicial pardon should be regulated not only within substantive criminal law but also in procedural criminal law, ensuring its operative function in delivering both moral and legal justice through restorative mechanisms. By conceptualizing judicial pardon as corrective justice, this research not only highlights its normative and procedural challenges but also offers insights for strengthening the balance between moral justice and legal justice in Indonesia’s evolving criminal law system.