Legal Political Reform of the Establishment of A Land Bank as A Legal Instrument in Land Acquisition for Development

Land acquisition for development in Indonesia faces persistent challenges, including limited land availability, land speculation, overlapping institutional responsibilities, and disputes concerning community land rights. The establishment of the Land Bank Agency (Badan Bank Tanah) represents an institutional response to these challenges; however, its legal framework requires critical examination to ensure consistency between development objectives and the principles of agrarian justice. This study examined the legal policy underlying the establishment of the Land Bank Agency, its legal status, its role in land acquisition for development, and the normative reforms necessary to strengthen its contribution to public welfare. The study employed a normative juridical research method incorporating statutory, conceptual, case, and historical approaches. Primary, secondary, and tertiary legal materials were collected through library research and analyzed qualitatively using descriptive and prescriptive legal reasoning. The findings indicated a shift in land governance policy from reactive land acquisition toward proactive, planned, and sustainable land reserve management. The Land Bank Agency was identified as a special legal entity established by the central government to manage land in accordance with its statutory mandate and the state's right of control over land, rather than as an institution exercising unrestricted ownership rights. However, overlapping institutional mandates, insufficiently defined boundaries of authority, limitations in oversight mechanisms, and inadequate safeguards for community land rights presented challenges to the coherence and effectiveness of its legal framework. These findings suggested that institutional innovation alone was insufficient to ensure equitable land governance without regulatory consistency, institutional accountability, and enforceable protections for affected communities. The study concluded that legal and institutional reforms should prioritize regulatory harmonization, clarification of institutional responsibilities, stronger supervision, meaningful public participation, fair compensation where legally applicable, and effective protection of land rights. Such reforms were considered essential to aligning the Land Bank Agency's operations with the constitutional principles of social justice and the greatest possible prosperity of the people under Article 33(3) of the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia.