Law, Governance, and Sustainability

Adipura is an evaluative instrument for assessing the performance of local governments in the implementation of waste management and the development of green open spaces, thereby promoting a clean, verdant, and sustainable environmental quality. This article examines the reconstruction of the Adipura Program from an administrative award into a legally binding framework for good environmental governance in Indonesia. Using a socio-legal approach, it integrates doctrinal analysis of environmental statutes with empirical evaluation of local government performance data. The findings reveal that Adipura suffers from normative weaknesses, fragmented institutional design, and limited legal enforcement, reducing it to a symbolic rather than substantive governance instrument. By employing the theories of Developmental Law, Legal Effectiveness, and Good Environmental Governance, the study demonstrates how law can be reengineered to transform bureaucratic behavior and embed accountability within environmental administration. The proposed reconstruction includes elevating Adipura under Government Regulation or President Regulation, adjustment the quality of the team with certification, integrating fiscal incentives, and codifying governance principles into enforceable legal norms. These reforms would strengthen the rule of law, institutionalize accountability, and advance Indonesia’s constitutional commitment to sustainable development and ecological justice

Accountability · Bureaucracy · Corporate governance · Environmental governance · Environmental law · Good governance · Normative · Rule of law · Sustainable development · Indonesian Legal and Regulatory Studies · Legal and Policy Analysis in Indonesia · Sustainability, Governance, and Employment Studies