Digitalizing Creative Economy Legality: A Sharia Perspective on Sragen’s Competitiveness

Abstract

Digital transformation has expanded market opportunities for creative-economy enterprises while simultaneously increasing the importance of formal business identity, halal assurance, intellectual-property protection, and access to digital public services. Sragen Regency has strengthened its physical creative-economy ecosystem through the establishment of the Sentra Industri Kreatif dan Kerajinan (SIKK). Nevertheless, the relationship between such infrastructure and the legal readiness of local creative businesses requires careful normative assessment. This study examines how the digitalization of business legality may contribute to the competitiveness of Sragen’s creative economy and how this process can be evaluated from the perspective of Islamic economic law. The research employs normative legal research using statutory, conceptual, and policy-document approaches. The legal corpus includes Government Regulation No. 28 of 2025 on Risk-Based Business Licensing, Government Regulation No. 42 of 2024 on Halal Product Assurance, Government Regulation No. 24 of 2022 on the Creative Economy, relevant intellectual-property legislation, DSN-MUI Fatwa No. 146/DSN-MUI/XII/2021, official OSS/BKPM and BPJPH materials, regional policy documents, and recent peer-reviewed scholarship. The study does not infer local behavioural prevalence in the absence of empirical evidence. Instead, it identifies normative and documented implementation risks relating to legal formalization, digital capability, institutional coordination, and accessibility. The analysis demonstrates that a Business Identification Number (NIB) concerns administrative legality and does not by itself determine the validity of a transaction under Islamic law. Within the maqāṣid al-sharīʿah framework, business formalization and intellectual-property protection can support ḥifẓ al-māl, while halal assurance primarily supports ḥifẓ al-dīn and may contribute to ḥifẓ al-nafs where product safety and ṭayyib considerations are involved. Sadd al-dharīʿah supports reducing opportunities for corruption and opaque discretionary procedures, but it cannot justify digital-only licensing that excludes less digitally capable users. Accordingly, an inclusive, assisted, auditable, and interoperable digital-legality ecosystem is proposed as the most appropriate model for strengthening legal certainty and the competitiveness of Sragen’s creative economy