Opportunity to utilize the citizen lawsuit mechanism for environmental protection

¹ Faculty of Law, Universitas Sebelas Maret, Surakarta, Indonesia
² Law Research Centre, National Research and Innovation Agency, BRIN, Jakarta, Indonesia

^* Corresponding author: saptohermawan_fh@staff.uns.ac.id

Abstract

Citizen lawsuits have become an adequate mechanism to control government actions related to environmental issues. The dynamics of citizen lawsuit decisions are developing positively, but behind the absence of regulation, the pattern of decisions is highly dependent on judicial activism. Meanwhile, constitutional guarantees only sometimes make the Government improve to manage responsibilities in environmental management. This paper uses normative legal research methods. A citizen lawsuit with an environmental aspect is a form of environmental right that includes access to information, the right to participate, and access to justice. Public distrust of the Government in environmental governance is manifested in civil lawsuits as a form of citizen control over government actions. Public trust finally transferred to the judiciary with a breakthrough in the citizen lawsuit mechanism based on judicial activism. This evidence can be seen from the characteristics of the Judge’s decision that have led to something constructive in environmental management by assessing that the Government and the Defendants have committed acts against the law. However, it has not explicitly used rights-based arguments and the principle of intergenerational justice in the environment and natural resource conflicts.