Nyadhar as Living Law in Coastal Salt Governance

Agung Ali Fahmi; Rachmad Safa’at; Dhiana Puspitawati; Herlindah Herlindah

doi:10.21107/tlr.v8i2.34494

Nyadhar as Living Law in Coastal Salt Governance

Agung Ali Fahmi, Rachmad Safa’at, Dhiana Puspitawati, Herlindah Herlindah

Abstract

This article examines Nyadhar as living law in the traditional salt governance of the Pinggirpapas salt-farming community in Sumenep, Madura. It analyzes how Nyadhar functions as a community normative system and interacts with national salt governance. Using a socio-legal approach, the study draws on participant observation of Nyadhar rituals in 2025–2026, semi-structured interviews with 26 informants, and document analysis. The findings reveal that Nyadhar functions not merely as a cultural ritual but as living law sustained through customary authority, intergenerational transmission, and collective compliance, while coordinating aspects of salt production, production ethics, and locally grounded ecological knowledge. Its relationship with national salt governance is characterized by asymmetrical coexistence: state law retains formal regulatory authority, while Nyadhar derives normative authority from customary legitimacy and continued social compliance. From a legal pluralism perspective, community norms retain internally generated normative legitimacy while remaining embedded in and structurally constrained by state regulation, markets, bureaucracy, and national policy. The study extends the analytical application of living law from maintaining social order to organizing aspects of community-based production and resource governance, advancing a relational understanding of legal pluralism between community normative authority and state governance.

Keywords

Nyadhar; Living Law; Legal Pluralism; Community-Based Governance; Salt Governance

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References

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.21107/tlr.v8i2.34494