Umar Seno Aji (5 December 1915 – 9 November 1984) was the fifth Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Indonesia as well as the fourteenth Indonesian Minister of Law and Human Rights.Adriaan Bedner, Administrative Courts in Indonesia: A Socio-legal Study, pg. 26. Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2001.
Aji's appointment as minister of law in 1966 was initially viewed as a victory by supporters of the rule of law;Adriaan Bedner, Administrative Courts, pg. 26. this later led to disappointment when, after his appointment, he became an opponent of judicial review.Adriaan Bedner, Administrative Courts, pg. 27. While his predecessor as chief justice Subekti had been a champion of judicial independence, Aji aided in the subordination of the supreme court to the executive branch and his successor as minister of law, Mochtar Kusumaatmadja.A. Massier, The Voice of the Law in Transition: Indonesian Jurists and Their Languages, 1915-2000, pg. 6. Leiden: Brill Publishers, 2008. Kanishka Jayasuriya, Law, Capitalism and Power in Asia: The Rule of Law and Legal Institutions, pg. 250. London: Routledge, 1999. His exertion of pressure on courts to avoid giving citizens too many rights in tort cases were one factor that led to the establishment of formal administrative courts in the country,Adriaan Bedner, Administrative Courts, pg. 31. though his politics of patronage are still credited with whittling away the judiciary's independence by the 1970s.A. Massier, The Voice of the Law, pg. 246.Kanishka Jayasuriya, Law, Capitalism and Power, pg. 245.
In terms of jurisprudence, Aji often looked to the judiciaries of other nations for congruence with that of Indonesia. He asserted that the Proclamation of Indonesian Independence strongly resembled the United States Declaration of Independence,Roshan T. Jose, Constitutional and legal systems of ASEAN countries, pg. 57. Quezon: University of the Philippines College of Law, 1990. and that Indonesian courts enforce customary law in private disputes, a concept similar to that of common law and law of equity.Roshan T. Jose, Constitutional and legal systems, pg. 77.
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