Indonesian law and leality in the Delta : a socio-legal inquiry into laws, local bureaucrats and natural resources management in the Mahakam Delta, East Kalimantan

Abstract

This book provides a socio-legal inquiry into the legal and administrative management of the natural resources of the Mahakam Delta, East Kalimantan, Indonesia. This book argues that due to a combination of complex legal and non-legal factors, laws and regulations on natural resources management of the Mahakam Delta have – bar a few exceptions – not been effectively implemented. As for the legal factor, one can observe that the laws and regulations on resource use are neither consistent nor coherent with one another. In practice, the inconsistency and incoherence have diminished the rights security of the resource users, and have led to confusion about the level of authority and legality of the regional and local government officials. Meanwhile, the non-legal factors concern factors internal and external to the government institutions. This book argues that due to factors external to the government institution s local officials have tried to justify resource use by putting social legitimacy ahead of legal legitimacy, when deciding whether the local users had resource rights or not. A sense of social concern and fairness led the local officials to establish legal interpretations that supported their conclusion that the actual resource use was not only legitimate but also legal.