UDTR Global Rights of Nature Radar

Judicial activism of Indonesia’s constitutional court in advancing environmental constitutionalism

Identification

Public canonical key

doi:10.31603/bishss.443

Authors

Ahmad Ahmad · King Faisal Sulaiman · Muhammad Fathi · Nurhafilah Musa

Reported year

2026

Reported language

en

Source type

article

First detected

2026-11-09T19:04:47.786800+00:00

Last metadata observation

2026-11-09T19:04:47.786800+00:00

Last HTTP verification

Not checked

Institutions reported by the source

Muhammadiyah University of Yogyakarta · National University of Malaysia · Universitas Muhammadiyah Tangerang

Reported affiliation countries

ID · MY

Documentary abstract — original language

The article analyzes the role of judicial activism by Indonesia’s Constitutional Court in advancing environmental constitutionalism amid persistent regulatory fragmentation and development-oriented governance. Although the 1945 Constitution guarantees the right to a good and healthy environment and embeds sustainability as a foundational economic principle, legislative and executive practices have frequently diluted environmental protection through deregulation and weakened participatory safeguards. Using normative legal research grounded in constitutional interpretation, proportionality analysis, and systematic examination of leading Constitutional Court decisions, this study develops an analytical framework to assess judicial activism across four dimensions: procedural, institutional, legislative, and substantive. Methodologically, the study justifies this approach on the premise that environmental constitutionalism operates not only through textual guarantees but also through judicial construction of enforceable norms and state obligations. The findings demonstrate that the Court has played a transformative role by constitutionalizing meaningful public participation, strengthening environmental governance mechanisms, correcting procedurally defective legislation, and articulating substantive ecological limits on economic development based on strong sustainability and precautionary principles. The article’s contribution lin conceptualizing these rulings as a structured pattern of environmental judicial activism rather than isolated decisions, thereby clarifying the Court’s function within Indonesia’s constitutional environmental order. However, structural constraints, particularly implementation gaps, fragmented governance, and legitimacy challenges, continue to limit the practical impact of judicial intervention. The article concludes that while judicial activism cannot substitute for comprehensive environmental governance, it operates as a critical constitutional corrective mechanism that reinforces environmental rights, ecological justice, and the supremacy of the Constitution in Indonesia’s environmental legal system.

Identifiers

OPENALEX

W7219821257

DOI

10.31603/bishss.443

Documentary context

Documentary family

Scholarship

Source-reported types

article

Jurisdictions studied — explicit sources

ID

Entity mentions are not evidence of legal recognition. Jurisdiction studied is separate from author affiliation country.

Sources

OpenAlex · Record 1 · Record 2

• DOI · https://doi.org/10.31603/bishss.443
• OpenAlex · https://openalex.org/W7219821257

Documented bibliographic relations

Source-declared references and links; they do not establish legal support or UGLC qualification. Up to 20 outgoing references are displayed.

• openalex:w2603745843 · CITES
• openalex:w4213232072 · CITES
• openalex:w4400245219 · CITES
• openalex:w4402813635 · CITES
• openalex:w4405336128 · CITES
• openalex:w4408072482 · CITES
• openalex:w4411853911 · CITES
• openalex:w4412109976 · CITES
• openalex:w4414884365 · CITES
• The Protection of Ecological Rights of Peatland Communities in Indonesia’s National Legal Policy: A Legal and Human Rights Perspective Analysis · CITES
• openalex:w4416935489 · CITES
• openalex:w7106503680 · CITES

0 incoming references within the detected corpus

Documentary status

Relevance pending

Library

This identity is not yet included in the Legal Library.