Agrarian Justice and Indonesian Law

Abstract

This paper presents a socio-legal consideration of the usage and role of the concept of ‘agrarian justice’ (keadilan agrarian) in the debates over access to natural resources in Indonesia. Agrarian justice has a limited but persistent presence in these discussions and by considering the concept within the context of the legal, political and societal developments taking place I seek to come to an understanding as to why such a broad concept is ostensibly used by so few only. I conclude that while the issues that agrarian justice pertains to are highly relevant, they are generally discussed using other denominators. Probably due to historical reasons and to the impractical level of abstraction inherent in ‘agrarian justice’.