Reconstructing Spatial Planning Law Through Neo-Progressivism: Towards an Integrated Jurisprudential Architecture

Abstract

Spatial planning law has evolved into a complex legal domain where environmental sustainability, governance, legal certainty, economic development, and social justice must be reconciled within an increasingly interconnected legal landscape. However, existing jurisprudential approaches generally address these dimensions separately, resulting in fragmented legal reasoning and limiting the capacity of spatial planning law to respond to contemporary challenges. This article aims to reconstruct spatial planning law through Neo-Progressivism by proposing an Integrated Jurisprudential Architecture capable of harmonizing justice, sustainability, governance, institutional legitimacy, and intergenerational responsibility within a coherent legal framework. The study employs normative legal research using statutory, conceptual, philosophical, and comparative approaches. It critically analyses major jurisprudential traditions, including Natural Law, Legal Positivism, Responsive Law, Progressive Law, and contemporary sustainability discourse, to formulate a reconstructed theoretical framework for spatial planning law. The findings demonstrate that the principal challenge of contemporary spatial planning law is no longer merely regulatory enforcement, but the absence of an integrated jurisprudential architecture capable of reconstructing the relationships among legitimate legal values. To address this theoretical gap, the article introduces Neo-Progressivism, grounded in the First Principle that justice without sustainability is temporary justice, and advances Sustainable Justice together with the Integrated Legal Order as the normative orientation for reconstructing spatial planning law. The study concludes that Neo-Progressivism offers a novel jurisprudential framework that extends beyond sectoral legal approaches by integrating the enduring contributions of existing jurisprudential traditions into a coherent architecture capable of sustaining justice throughout the continuing evolution of civilization.