<![CDATA[Landfill disasters in Indonesia continue to claim lives, from Leuwigajah (2005) to Bantargebang (2026), yet the legal basis for compensating victims remains unsettled. Law Number 18 of 2008 grants a right to compensation for the negative impacts of final disposal sites, while Article 25 states only that the government “may” provide it. This normative legal study, using statutory, case, conceptual, and comparative approaches, examines whether such compensation is a discretion or a legal obligation, whether open dumping qualifies as an activity posing a “serious threat” under the strict liability rule of Article 88 of Law Number 32 of 2009, and how an enforceable compensation mechanism should be designed. Through a systematic reading, the study argues that the right in Article 11, the responsibility principle, and the budgeting rule of Government Regulation Number 81 of 2012 support reading compensation as an obligation, with discretion limited to its form, amount, and delivery; no court has yet confirmed this prescriptive reading. An open dumping site can meet the “serious threat” criteria of Supreme Court Regulation Number 1 of 2023 when site-specific evidence shows wide impact and danger to many people, and the Mandalawangi case shows that government bodies have been held strictly liable. The article proposes separating routine compensation from disaster damages, a non-waiver clause, a dedicated budget account, a volume-based emergency fund, and a rule keeping strict liability claims in district courts, measures that require amendments to Supreme Court and government regulations.]]>
