Problems of Legal Certainty in Determining Judicial Competence for TNI Soldiers in General Criminal Offenses

The determination of judicial competence for Indonesian National Armed Forces (TNI) soldiers who commit general crimes faces normative issues due to differences in construction between Law Number 31 of 1997 concerning Military Justice and Law Number 34 of 2004 concerning the TNI. This study aims to analyze the regulation of judicial competence for TNI soldiers who commit general crimes and to test the legal certainty in determining the judicial forum. This study is a normative legal study using a statutory and conceptual approach. The analysis was conducted on Article 9 of Law 31/1997 and Articles 65 and 74 of the TNI Law using the theory of judicial competence or jurisdiction and Gustav Radbruch's theory of legal certainty. The results of the study indicate that Law 31/1997 establishes the status of soldiers as the basis for military judicial competence (subject-based jurisdiction), while Article 65 of the TNI Law shifts this basis by differentiating competence based on the type of crime (offense-based jurisdiction). This shift has not yet been fully implemented operationally because Article 74 of the TNI Law maintains the validity of Law 31/1997 until the new Military Court Law is enacted. This situation raises legal certainty issues regarding clarity, consistency, and predictability of judicial forums. This problem is not caused by a lack of legal basis, but rather by the existence of two intertwined normative bases in determining judicial competence.