<![CDATA[Since decentralization, sharia-inspired local regulations have proliferated in Indonesia, yet scholarship often narrowly focuses on coercive enforcement and social conflict. Consequently, there is limited understanding of how these regulations function symbolically in normatively plural settings, especially among communities that are not their direct targets. This study employs a qualitative socio-legal approach to examine the positioning of sharia-inspired local regulations in relation to the Baduy indigenous community of Kanekes, Banten. The analysis is based on official documents, specifically three regional regulations: Banten Provincial Regulation No. 1 of 2021 on Halal Product Guarantee, Lebak Regional Regulation No. 8 of 2001 on the Protection of the Baduy Community, and Lebak Regional Regulation No. 6 of 2003 on the Prohibition of Alcoholic Beverages, as well as Constitutional Court Decision No. 97/PUU-XIV/2016 on the Recognition of Indigenous Faith Followers as a broader legal reference point. Findings reveal that these regulations do not operate through direct enforcement against the Baduy, but through the construction of normative hierarchies within the public legal sphere. For instance, halal-certified frameworks in buffer zones reorder sources of normativity, elevating state-institutionalized sharia norms while repositioning pikukuh (customary law) within a framework of conditional recognition. This article argues that the core issue of sharia formalization lies in how public law symbolically constructs these hierarchies. Its contribution lies in advancing a non-coercive approach to legal pluralism and clarifying the ethical limits of sharia formalization in systems that claim to respect normative diversity.]]>
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