Harmonization of National Land Law With the Principles of Agrarian Justice in the Constitution

Abstract

Land governance in Indonesia is regulated through multiple legal frameworks, including land law, forestry, spatial planning, environmental law, mining, plantations, and business licensing. The simultaneous application of these sectoral regulations to the same land may produce differences in legal status, institutional authority, procedures, and forms of utilization, thereby creating legal uncertainty and weakening the protection of community rights. This study examines the alignment of national land law with the principles of agrarian justice under the 1945 Constitution and formulates a model for harmonizing national land law based on constitutional agrarian justice. The research employs a doctrinal legal method using statutory and conceptual approaches. Primary legal materials consist of the 1945 Constitution, the Basic Agrarian Law, forestry and spatial planning legislation, agrarian reform regulations, and other sectoral rules relating to land control and utilization. The analysis is conducted through legal inventory, interpretation, systematization, and legal construction. The findings show that harmonization of national land law requires not only vertical conformity between the Constitution, statutes, implementing regulations, and administrative decisions, but also horizontal consistency among sectoral regulations governing the same land. Formal regulatory consistency alone is insufficient because land policies also affect access, control, community rights, social functions, and the distribution of agrarian benefits. The novelty of this study lies in the formulation of a Constitutional Agrarian Justice-Based Three-Layer Harmonization Model, consisting of constitutional orientation, normative consistency, and distributive consequences. The model positions harmonization as both an evaluative and preventive framework for assessing land policies before new rights, permits, spatial designations, or other administrative decisions are issued, thereby strengthening legal certainty, protection of community and customary rights, equitable access to land, and sustainable agrarian governance.