Natural disasters have become a persistent challenge for contemporary legal systems, requiring not only emergency response mechanisms but also robust disaster law frameworks that integrate governance, institutional coordination, and sustainable development objectives. This study examines comparative disaster law and governance in Indonesia, Malaysia, Yemen, and Portugal to analyze how legal frameworks and institutional leadership influence disaster resilience and sustainable economic development. The study addresses three research questions: how disaster governance is legally structured in different jurisdictions, how institutional leadership contributes to the effectiveness of disaster law implementation, and how comparative legal lessons can inform an integrative governance model for resilience and development. A normative-comparative legal research method is employed, using statutory analysis, policy documents, and relevant scholarly literature. The analysis is guided by legal system theory, good governance theory, and responsive law theory to evaluate the interaction between legal norms, institutional structures, and governance effectiveness across jurisdictions. The findings indicate that Indonesia applies a decentralized disaster law framework under Law No. 24 of 2007, Malaysia implements a centralized coordination model through national directives and the National Disaster Management Agency (NADMA), Yemen reflects fragmented disaster governance due to political instability and limited institutional capacity, and Portugal adopts an integrated European Union–aligned civil protection system emphasizing prevention and resilience. The study demonstrates that effective disaster governance depends on legal certainty, institutional coordination, and leadership capacity. Based on the comparative findings, this research develops the Integrative Legal Leadership and Disaster Governance (ILDG) Model, which links legal foundations, institutional leadership, governance capacity, disaster resilience, and sustainable economic development as a unified analytical framework contributing to disaster law scholarship.
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