Restorative Justice and the Principle of Legality in the Termination of Criminal Investigations in Indonesia

Abstract

The application of restorative justice in terminating criminal investigations raises fundamental questions concerning the principle of legality, legal certainty, and the limits of investigative discretion. This study examines the legal boundaries of restorative justice-based termination of investigations in Indonesia and proposes a regulatory model that reconciles substantive justice with procedural accountability. Employing normative juridical research through statutory, conceptual, and comparative legal analysis, the study examines Law Number 8 of 1981, Law Number 20 of 2025, Indonesian National Police Regulation Number 8 of 2021, and nine selected scholarly articles published between 2020 and 2026. The analysis combines legal interpretation with thematic synthesis of the literature, focusing on investigative authority, eligibility requirements, voluntary participation, victim restoration, and institutional oversight. The findings demonstrate that the new Criminal Procedure Code provides an explicit statutory framework for restorative justice-based termination of investigations, replacing the earlier reliance on institution-specific regulations. Nevertheless, statutory recognition does not eliminate the risks of inconsistent eligibility assessments, coerced agreements, and insufficient scrutiny of termination decisions. This study proposes a rule-bound restorative justice model comprising legally grounded eligibility screening, independent verification of consent, confirmation of victim restoration, documented legal reasoning, and meaningful external oversight. The model distinguishes existing statutory obligations from additional procedural safeguards recommended for implementation. The study concludes that restorative justice is compatible with the principle of legality when investigative discretion operates within clearly defined, transparent, and reviewable legal boundaries.