Andriana Krisnawati speaking at the APHTN-HAN Legal Drafting Program Batch IV, Thursday (9/23/2021). Photo by Humas MK/Teguh.

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Thursday, September 23, 2021 | 18:44 WIB

BOGOR, Public Relations—The language style used in laws and regulations is different from that the common variety of the Indonesian language but still follow the Indonesian grammar, said the Head of the Sub-directorate for Legislative Design Standardization and Supervision of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights Andriana Krisnawati at the technical assistance program (bimtek) on Legal Drafting Batch IV for the Association of Constitutional and Administrative Law Lectures of Indonesia (APHTN-HAN) on Thursday, September 23, 2021.

Speaking about “Legal Drafting Technique Part III,” she also explained “The Language Variety of Legislation.” The characteristics of the legal language, she said, are clarity, straightforwardness, standardization, harmony, and adherence to principles in accordance with legal requirements, both in formulation and writing technique. It must be straightforward, precise, simple, objective, and provide clear definitions. She advised using singular rather than plural forms.

“Laws and regulations should not use ambiguous words or phrases whose context in a sentence is unclear. Directly use literal words, such as ‘alcohol,’ ‘court,’ and ‘prison,’” she said alongside moderator Imam Ropii, a lecturer at Wisnuwardhana University, Malang.

Andriana also illustrated the use of foreign terms, which can be used if they have a suitable connotation and are shorter than its Indonesian counterpart, as well as facilitate agreement on the object being decribed.

Also read: Legal Drafters Must Understand Constitution Before Drafting Legal Norms

Andriana also talked about diction and terms and how to refer to them. Each article has a meaning that is standalone and does not refer to other articles or paragraphs. In order to avoid redundancy, reference is used.

“However, in the general provisions, any reference of other laws or regulations or documents must mention its source, so that everything is clear,” she said before 85 participants from APHTN-HAN and the Constitutional Court.

A Q&A session was opened after the presentation. The participants were encouraged to ask and talked about their difficulty in understanding the linguistic stye of laws and regulations. At the next session, the participants They will also practice legal drafting in 16 groups under the guidance of a speaker and then present their results.

Also read: Legal Drafting Bimtek Learn Harmonizing Legislative Bills

The bimtek was planned to run for five days on Monday-Friday, September 20-24, 2021. It was organized by the Pancasila and Constitution Education Center (Pusdik) in collaboration with the Ministry of Law and Human Rights and the Association of Constitutional and Administrative Law Lectures of Indonesia (APHTN-HAN). The participants listened to presentations by legal experts on various topics and practice legal drafting. At the end of the program, they presented their results in 8 groups.

Writer        : Sri Pujianti
Editor        : Lulu Anjarsari P.
Translator  : Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)

Translation uploaded on 10/3/2021 23:27 WIB

Disclaimer: The original version of the news is in Indonesian. In case of any differences between the English and the Indonesian version, the Indonesian version will prevail.

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