Borobudur Law and Society Journal

Street vendors (pedagang kaki lima, PKL) sustain local livelihoods, but around Borobudur Temple, a World Heritage property and a national strategic area, they trade on pavements and road verges and disturb public order. This article asks how effective Magelang Regency Regional Regulation No 7 of 2009 on Organising and Empowering Street Vendors is in achieving public order in the Borobudur area, and why. It is empirical legal research with a sociological approach, using the Regulation, earlier studies and an interview with an official of the Department of Trade, Cooperatives and SMEs, and it assesses effectiveness against Soekanto’s five factors. The article finds that the Regulation is clear in content but weakly effective in Borobudur sub-district. The Regent’s power under article 4 to determine, move and close vendor locations, and the empowerment duty in article 11, have not been exercised there because no land suitable for relocation has been identified; the permit duty in article 6 is often unmet; and the department reports no re-checking of vendors from 2020 to 2022. Heritage and spatial-planning law narrow the options for siting vendors. The article recommends a siting study with published criteria, an interim arrangement for vendors, a funded rest area and a permit scheme, and it advises that the Regulation’s current status be confirmed.