The Rule of Law is Characterized as Having 4 Legal Attributes

To distinguish legal regulations from other norms, which both have a function as a means of social control in society, the rule of law is characterized as having 4 legal attributes, namely:

1. Attribute of Authority, i.e. legal regulations are the decisions of the majority holders to resolve disputes or social tensions in the community, due to threats to the safety of citizens, the safety of the holder of authority, or threats to the public interest.
2. Attributes with the intention to be applied universally (Attributes of Intention of Universal Applications), i.e. decisions of the authority are intended to be decisions that will also be applied to the same events universally.
3. Attribute of Bonds (Attributes of Obligation), i.e. decisions of the authority holder contain a statement that the first party has the right to collect something from the second party, and the second party has an obligation to fulfill the rights of the first party as long as they are still alive.
4. Attributes of Sanctions (Attributes of Sanction), i.e. decisions of the authority holders are also accompanied by the imposition of sanctions, both in the form of physical sanctions such as corporal punishment and confiscation of property, or non-physical sanctions such as humiliation in front of many people , exiled from social interaction, made into fear, etc. The concept of law that emphasizes the attribute of authority and the attribute of sanctions is also put forward by Hoebel (1954) to distinguish between legal norms and other norms that also have a function as a means of controlling society (social control).

The basis of legal regulations are social norms, and social norms will turn into legal norms if every violation of social norms is regularly subjected to physical sanctions based on the decision of the authority holder who is socially given special authority to impose these sanctions. 

A social norm is legal if its neglect or infraction is regularly met, in threat or in fact, by the application of physical force by an individual or group possesing the socially recognized previlege of so acting (Hoebel, 1954: 28).

In the context of customary law in Indonesia, the concept of law based solely on the attributes of authority referred to above was introduced by Ter Haar, known as the Decision Theory (Beslissingenleer / Decision Theory), which basically states that law is defined as the decisions of the customary head in cases of disputes and events that are not related to the dispute.