<![CDATA[Restorative justice has become an important alternative for settling minor criminal cases in Indonesia. Unlike the conventional criminal justice approach, which emphasises punishment, restorative justice prioritises victim recovery, offender accountability, reconciliation, and restoring social relations. This article examines how restorative justice is regulated in the Indonesian criminal justice system, how it applies to minor criminal offences, and the obstacles to achieving legal certainty and justice. This research applies a normative legal method using statutory, conceptual, and analytical approaches. The study finds that Indonesia regulates restorative justice through various sectoral and institutional instruments, including police regulations, prosecutorial regulations, judicial guidelines, juvenile criminal justice legislation, and the new Criminal Code. Such fragmented regulation creates different procedures and requirements among law enforcement institutions. In minor criminal cases, restorative justice may provide substantive justice by facilitating restitution, apology, reconciliation, and direct offender responsibility. However, implementation faces several challenges, including inconsistent legal standards, unequal bargaining positions, possible coercion of victims, the commercialisation of peace agreements, and inadequate monitoring. Therefore, restorative justice should be implemented through harmonised regulations, voluntary participation, victim protection, transparent procedures, measurable recovery, and integrated supervision. Restorative justice can reconcile legal certainty and substantive justice when it is treated not merely as a mechanism for terminating cases, but as a legally accountable process of recovery and responsibility.]]>
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