THE LIMITS OF DISCRETION IN CIVIL SERVANT TRANSFER POLICY: A MAQASHID AL-SHARIAH PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

The transfer (mutation) of civil servants (ASN) in Indonesia is ideally governed by meritocratic principles, yet in practice such authority is frequently exercised through the discretion of personnel management officials, whose boundaries often blur with abuse of power. Administrative law scholarship has generally confined discretion within the General Principles of Good Governance (AUPB) but has yet to integrate the maqashid al-shariah perspective as an ethical-normative evaluative instrument. This study aims to analyze the normative limits of discretion in ASN transfer policy and to formulate boundary criteria grounded in maqashid al-shariah. The research questions addressed are: first, how discretion of personnel management officials in ASN transfers is regulated and limited under Indonesian administrative law; second, how such limits can be reconstructed through the lens of maqashid al-shariah (al-dharuriyyat al-khamsah). This study employs a normative juridical method with statutory, conceptual, and case approaches, supported by qualitative analysis of primary and secondary legal materials as well as Islamic legal sources. The findings indicate that although constrained by AUPB, discretion in ASN transfers still leaves room for subjectivity due to the absence of clear operational parameters; integrating maqashid al-shariah strengthens the framework for testing the validity of discretionary decisions by emphasizing maslahah and rejecting mafsadah. The study concludes that an integrative model combining AUPB and maqashid al-shariah is necessary as a comprehensive parameter to prevent the abuse of discretion in civil servant transfers.