LAND JUSTICE AND AGRARIAN POLICY: REGISTRATION, CUSTOMARY RIGHTS AND THE LIMITS OF REDISTRIBUTION

Abstract

Indonesian agrarian policy combines an explicitly redistributive founding statute with an administrative programme oriented towards certification, and the two are not the same thing: issuing titles over land already held does not alter its distribution. This study aims to distinguish formalisation from redistribution as policy instruments, to analyse the treatment of customary land rights after the constitutional recognition of customary forest, and to formulate criteria for an agrarian policy capable of addressing structural inequality. The research applies normative juridical research with statutory, conceptual, case and comparative approaches, supported by a reading of the classical Islamic law of land revival, protected zones and the prohibition of holding land idle, drawing on Indonesian agrarian, forestry and spatial legislation, constitutional decisions, and comparative land reform literature. The findings show that certification strengthens tenure security for existing holders while leaving concentration untouched and may accelerate transfer away from smallholders, that recognition of customary land remains conditional on prior regional regulation which communities cannot themselves enact, and that the land bank institution shifts the redistributive question to an administrative body without a statutory beneficiary standard. The study recommends a statutory ceiling enforcement mechanism, self-executing customary recognition, and beneficiary criteria binding on the land bank.