The Role of Notaries in Drafting Customary Land Utilization Agreements for National Strategic Projects in the Merauke Customary Territory

Abstract

The utilization of customary land for National Strategic Projects (PSN) in Merauke Regency, South Papua, creates a specific legal problem because communal customary tenure must interact with national land administration, corporate investment, and accelerated development policy. This article updates the earlier journal manuscript by using the final thesis findings as its principal basis. The study applies a juridical-empirical or sociological legal method, combining statutory, conceptual, case, and sociological approaches with interview data from two notarial practitioners in Merauke. The analysis shows that legal uncertainty is concentrated in three areas: uncertainty over the customary representative entitled to consent, uncertainty over the status and boundaries of the customary land object, and the absence of complete institutional and spatial data that can be relied upon before a deed is signed. The article also clarifies the division of authority between a Notary and a Land Deed O