Legal Governance Of Village Boundary Dispute Resolution

Made Weda Sapta Prasetia (Warmadewa University)
Ni Made Jaya Senastri (Department of Law, Pascasarjana, Warmadewa University, Denpasar, Indonesia)
, I Gst Bagus Suryawan (Department of Law, Pascasarjana, Warmadewa University, Denpasar, Indonesia)

Jurnal Smart Hukum (JSH)
Vol. 5 No. 2 (2027): October-January

Village boundary disputes remain a persistent challenge despite the existence of an established legal framework governing boundary determination and affirmation in Indonesia. Recurring disputes indicate that regulatory compliance alone is insufficient to ensure legal certainty, administrative order, and effective local governance. This study examines the legal governance of village boundary dispute resolution by evaluating the coherence of the regulatory framework and the effectiveness of administrative settlement mechanisms. Employing normative legal research, the study integrates statutory, conceptual, and case approaches through qualitative analysis of primary, secondary, and tertiary legal materials using descriptive, evaluative, and prescriptive methods. The findings reveal that Indonesia has developed a comprehensive legal framework encompassing the 1945 Constitution, the Village Law, the Regional Government Law, the Geospatial Information Law, and the Minister of Home Affairs Regulation No. 45 of 2016. Nevertheless, implementation remains constrained by inconsistent institutional coordination, divergent interpretations of historical boundary evidence, and limited integration of geospatial information. Administrative dispute resolution emphasizing deliberation, documentary verification, geospatial validation, and formal government determination provides a practical pathway toward legal certainty, although its effectiveness depends on institutional capacity and public legal awareness. The study contributes a legal governance perspective by demonstrating that sustainable dispute resolution requires the integration of regulatory coherence, intergovernmental coordination, reliable geospatial governance, and community legal culture rather than reliance on legal substance alone. Future studies should incorporate empirical assessments of digital geospatial governance and comparative analyses across regions to evaluate the long-term effectiveness of village boundary dispute resolution policies.