The Efforts of Obstructing the Preservation of Cultural Heritage Buildings in the Decision of the State Administrative Court of Indonesia (A Case Study of the Decision of the State Administrative Court of Bandung No. 121/G/2019/Ptun.Bdg)

This research is conducted out of our concerns about the preservation of cultural heritage buildings in Indonesia. One of the triggers is the Decision of Sumedang Regent Concerning the Designation of Special Regency-Ranked Cultural Heritage of a house on Jalan Geusan Ulun, Regency/City of Sumedang, Jawa Barat, Indonesia. The heirs of the house objected and filed a lawsuit to the State Administrative Court (Pengadilan Tata Usaha Negara) Bandung. They won the case and the judge decided that the decision of the Regent of Sumedang was invalidated. The result, however, indicates that there is a legal problem. On the one hand, the Law on Cultural Heritage dictates that the regional government must preserve, develop, and utilize cultural heritages. It also regulates that it is compulsory for every one who possesses and/or controls cultural heritages to register them—free of charge—to the regency/city government. Moreover, the law emphasizes that unregistered cultural heritages could be taken over by the regional government. On the other hand, one of the legal considerations of the judge was that there had been no socialization. The judge did not describe the elements of the articles referred to as the legal material. The judge pointed out that the defendant’s actions that eventually made a house an object of dispute contradicted the principles of austerity in the principles of good governance. This study endeavors to conduct an in-depth discussion to answer these questions: (1) Could the lawsuit of the plaintiffs be interpreted as a way to hinder the efforts to preserve cultural heritage and (2) Have the legal consideration and judge's decision been oriented to the preservation of cultural heritage? This normative study uses secondary data—primary and secondary legal material. The primary legal material is analyzed by describing, systemizing, analyzing, and assessing the preservation of cultural heritage buildings using the theory of good-governance principles and the theory of preservation.