Indonesia's land acquisition law: Towards effective prevention of land grabbing?

Abstract

In 2012 the Indonesian government promulgated a new law on Land Procurement for Development in the Public Interest. It is applicable to new land procurement procedures initiated after the law’s promulgation as well as existing procedures that remain unresolved after 31 December 2014.The law is intended to improve land procurement procedures with regard to speed, legal certainty and fairness of compensation, factors which in turn are hoped to contribute to Indonesia’s attractiveness to investors and, as such, to contribute to the nation’s economic development. In this article we discuss the legal framework of the new law and consider the changes it contains. We discuss reception and criticism of the law, and consider its functioning by looking at several instances of its implementation. Although on first sight Law No. 2 of 2012 and implementing legislation creates new possibilities for quick and just land procurement, upon closer look it becomes clear that the law contains some serious weaknesses. The first experiences with the law confirms that the goal of speeding up land procurement for development in the public interest may not be reached