Ecological Corruption and the Tyranny of Positive Law: A Rawlsian Analysis of Corporate Land-Burning Impunity

Abstract

The impunity enjoyed by land-burning corporations in Indonesia is not merely a technical failure of enforcement but a structural injustice legitimized by positive law itself. Using normative-juridical research with statutory, case, and conceptual approaches, this article reads recurrent forest and land fires through the lens of ecological corruption and John Rawls’s justice as fairness. It argues that (1) recurrent fires in corporate concessions can be construed as ecological corruption because land-clearing costs are externalized onto the public and ecosystems; (2) positive law operates as a legalistic tyranny through the dilution of strict liability after the Job Creation Law amended Article 88 of Law No. 32 of 2009, administrative sanctions treated as a cost of doing business, and outcomes disproportionate to ecological harm; and (3) parties behind the veil of ignorance would reject such rules because they conflict with equal liberty, the difference principle, fair equality of opportunity, and the just savings principle. The novelty of the article lies in using Rawls’s theory of justice, which none of the studies reviewed applies to this problem, as a test of corporate land-burning impunity. The article recommends restoring strict liability, proportionate corporate sanctions under the new Criminal Code, permit revocation for repeat offenders, and stronger access to justice for victims.