Reforming Indonesia’s Land Dispute Resolution Mechanism: Comparative Insights for a Specialized Court from the Mato Grosso, Brazil Land Court and New Zealand Māori Land Court

This paper examines the persistent legal and socioeconomic challenges posed by land disputes in Indonesia. These challenges arise from inefficient land administration, jurisdictional conflicts, and the absence of a specialized dispute resolution mechanism. Land conflicts in Indonesia manifest in various forms, including ownership disputes, boundary disagreements, customary land claims, land acquisition conflicts, disputes over former manorial lands, land reform disputes, and enforcement-related conflicts. Utilizing a doctrinal legal methodology with a comparative approach, this study critically analyzes the structural weaknesses of Indonesia’s current land dispute resolution system. It explores potential institutional improvements by drawing insights from the specialized land courts of New Zealand and Mato Grosso, Brazil. The Māori Land Court of New Zealand provides a model for safeguarding indigenous land rights and ensuring legal certainty, while Mato Grosso’s agrarian land court demonstrates the importance of administrative integration and judicial specialization in resolving large-scale land conflicts. The findings suggest that Indonesia would significantly benefit from the establishment of a specialized land court that is dedicated to addressing land disputes with greater efficiency, coherence, and procedural clarity. By incorporating comparative insights from New Zealand and Brazil, this article provides practical recommendations for Indonesian policymakers in designing a structured, just, and sustainable legal framework for land governance through the establishment of a specialized land court, ensuring stronger tenure security and equitable access to justice across diverse societal groups.