Uncertainty in Land Rights for Non-Public Cemeteries

Abstract

This article examines the legal determination of land rights over non-public cemeteries managed by religious and social legal entities in Indonesia. The issue arises from the ambiguity and inconsistency of norms concerning whether non-public cemetery land may be granted Right of Use, Waqf-owned Right of Ownership, or Right of Ownership for religious and social bodies. This research uses normative juridical method with statutory and conceptual approaches. Legal materials were collected through library research by examining agrarian law, land registration regulations, regulations on cemetery land, and legal doctrines concerning legal certainty, land rights, property law, and administrative decisions. The findings show that the regulation of land rights over non-public cemeteries contains vague norms and disharmony between Government Regulation Number 9 of 1987 and Government Regulation Number 38 of 1963. The study concludes that granting ownership rights to religious and social bodies may provide legal certainty and protection for organizational assets, but its use must remain limited to cemetery purposes and the social function of land