Legal Policy on The Relocation of the State Capital in The Indonesian Constitutional System

Abstract

The relocation of the National Capital from Jakarta to the archipelago is a strategic policy that is not only related to the development of new government areas, but also has consequences for the constitutional system, central and regional relations, and the distribution of government authority. This study aims to analyze the constitutional legitimacy of the policy of relocating the National Capital, juridical rationality, politics, and policy in determining East Kalimantan as the location of the archipelago, as well as the status and position of the archipelago in the Indonesian constitutional system. The research uses normative legal research methods with laws and regulations, conceptual, and analytical, supported by secondary legal materials and relevant field data. The analysis is carried out qualitatively using the perspective of people's sovereignty, the rule of law, legal politics, open legal policy, utilitarianism, distributive justice, and policy instruments. The results of the study show that the policy of moving the State Capital has a constitutional basis and is included in  the open legal policy space  because the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia does not explicitly determine the location of the national capital. However, the legitimacy of the policy is not only determined by the formal legality through the IKN Law, but also by the quality of public participation, protection of rights, distributive justice, proportionality, and accountability. The determination of East Kalimantan has juridical, political, and policy rationality that can be accounted for, but its success is conditional on the state's ability to distribute development benefits and control social, economic, and ecological impacts. Meanwhile, the archipelago has the character of a special regional government at the provincial level organized by the IKN Authority, thus forming an institutional design that is different from conventional regional government. The study concludes that the main challenge of moving the IKN is not solely a question of constitutionality, but how the institutional specificity of the archipelago is built with legal certainty, democracy, representation, accountability, and balance of central-regional relations.