RI legalese needs revision: Expert

RI legalese needs revision: Expert

A. Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Noted legal expert Harkristuti Harkrisnowo suggested on Thursday
that long sentences and foreign terms be avoided in legal
documents to make legal language easy to understand for ordinary
people.

"The use of long sentences and foreign terms means legal
language can only be understood by lawyers. It seems legal
language has been separated from the Indonesian language,"
Harkristuti of the University of Indonesia said in a plenary
session of the 8th Indonesian Language Congress.

She said long sentences and foreign words could be found in
laws, legal circulars, contracts and dossiers.

Many foreign terms, especially Dutch, were common since
Indonesian laws were based on Dutch laws.

Some English legal terms have also entered the country's legal
system, especially laws related to issues on bankruptcy and
commercial courts.

Harkristuti acknowledged that changing the style of legal
language was not easy as it had already become a practice of
legal practitioners who want to avoid misinterpretation.

"We have to follow principles in Indonesian language to avoid
misinterpretation and multiple interpretations," she said.

She suggested experts on law and Indonesian language should
meet to formulate Indonesian legal terms, concepts and
interpretations in a bid to develop Indonesia's legal language.

Meanwhile, head of the State Administrative Institute (LAN)
Anwar Suprijadi said that there was an increasing tendency to use
foreign terms, especially English, in state administrative
affairs and activities.

Anwar claimed foreign terms were used since there were no
similar words in the Indonesian language or the Indonesian
translations were not precise.

"But the problem is foreign terms are often used in the wrong
context," he said in a panel discussion at the congress.

He said the use of Bahasa Indonesia has a strong legal basis
as it is the only official language mentioned in the
constitution.