Hello, Ana, you can find something useful here: http://ec.europa.eu/civiljustice/applicable_law/applicable_law_bul_bg.htm

Regards,

Marinella

Thank you very much for you message.

Regards, 

Ana Paula 

The UK Supreme Court publishes 'press summaries' alongside the judgements - see e.g. https://www.supremecourt.uk/cases/uksc-2014-0220.html - with the aim of making the issues in the judgment easier to follow for the public and the press.

On a longer timescale, the Law Commissions are charged with considering how to simplify the law (and for an analysis of their success or otherwise http://www.bloomsburyprofessional.com/uk/fifty-years-of-the-law-commissions-9781849468572/ may be worth a look).

Some charities also try to help improve understanding of the legislation and cases.

Than you very much for your answer. It helped a lot.

Hi Ana

The Government of New Zealand tried to make law more user friendly and in particular the Personal Property Securities Act 2002 is an example. It is not until section 15 or 16 that you get to definitions, which are usually in section 2. The first section of the Act is attempting to make it easier for regular folks to read, and there are also examples given in the Act.  Unfortunately the impetus sort of stopped. Google the Parliamentary Counsel Office to see NZ's current approach to drafting bills. Good luck with your research too.

Hi Ana

you might find the work of the Law and Justice Foundation useful.  They have many projects related to making the law more accessible

http://www.lawfoundation.net.au/information

http://www.lawfoundation.net.au/information

I wish that my own country (Kenya) had some good examples!  The best we have achieved was perhaps in the Constitution of 2010. One of the leading technical drafters for that process was also involved in the current (1996) South African Constitution. The latter document is much more readable than many - and it was that drafter's brief to make it so. But resistance on the part of lawyers, and sometimes others, I think, made it harder to achieve simpler drafting in Kenya.  And laws drafted since are not, on the whole, better. 

Constitutions are often rather more concerned with principle than detailed practice and can be more clearly drafted, but there are different styles even within constitutions and common law drafting styles will often be more detailed, and less accessible, than in the civil law tradition.

You are probably familiar with Clarity (http://www.clarity-international.net/).  It has some useful material - and references to events such as this:

• 6 October 2016 – How well does plain language work? A legislative perspective (London) 
• Joint event with the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies.
• Our speaker is Dr Jeffrey Barnes, Senior Lecturer in law at La Trobe University in Australia.
• Plain language, and whether it works in legislation, is a special interest of Dr Barnes and was the subject of his PhD thesis.

Some efforts have been made in the UK. But this does not go as far, I think, as legislation on the subject. And judges are left to develop their own styles, but guides to judgment writing these days tend to stress plaing language. 

As a research tip: "Plain English" and "plain language" are very useful phrases when searhing for electronic sources.

I am attaching an article I downloaded from academia.

Jill

dear Ana,

please define simplification of language...what are you looking for? simplication for better regulation (drafting) or simplication of language for communicate with citizens?

In my country (Italy) it depens on which perspective you choose...let me know in oder to help you better,

regards

Monica

I am not aware of a source that simplifies Us law. First our law is based on precedence thus laws are written to use the language that has been interpreted before. Next our system is based on federalism. Powers are granted to the national government and the state government.. some power is exclusive to one level some concurrent power. so for example laws on education can be national but each state may have different laws on the same issue. we have tried to encourage simplification but that generally has not been accepted

In Argentina there are no official attempts to simplify legal language. As a former member and country rep of Clarity International I did try to spur the debate, to no avail. Legislators, judges and lawyers seem unaware of plain legal language and indifferent to change. 

Following Maximiliano Marzetti's comment about the Argentine situation, and though there are -as he has pointed out, no official attempts at simplifying legal language, one could argue the new Civil and Commercial Code could be read along the lines of an attempt at simplifying and bringing legal-lingo closer to the people.

As a matter of fact, the new unified civil/commercial code has been drafted in a more "user friendly" way, considering what legal lingo here looks like. 

The project for re-drafting and simplifying both codes, was conceived under the premise of bringing some of its institutions up to date, given that both codes were over a century old.

From 4050 articles (aprox.) the Civil Code had, and 1200 articles (although over 200 articles of this code were revoked, and many others were in disuse, leaving around 800 'usable' arts) on the commercial code, we now have a unified Civil/Commercial code of 2671 articles, written in a more colloquial type of register, leaving some language formalities and legal formula slang aside.  

Here's a link to a news article on the main changes of this code.

http://www.telam.com.ar/notas/201410/80250-nuevo-codigo-civil-y-comercial-10-cambios-centrales.html

And if you feel like browsing through the new unified code, here's a link to it.

http://servicios.infoleg.gob.ar/infolegInternet/anexos/235000-239999/235975/norma.htm

Dear Marien, thank you for your comments. Indeed the new Argentine Code was written in colloquial language and it's shorter than the previous one, but language simplification, from a linguistic perspective at least, was not even discussed. The contrast with the so-called plain language movement in the US, UK, Australia, NZ, etc., is stark. Countries like Mexico, Spain and Chile, to name a few, have official programs to simplify legal language and avoid unnecessary "legalese" in Spanish. I think we should do more.

Estimada Ana Paula,

La Corte Suprema de Justicia de la Nación ha habilitado, hace unos años, un sistema de asesoramiento interno para magistrados y funcionarios, en materia de lenguaje judicial.

En este link hallarás una explicación breve sobre cómo funciona el sistema, y cuáles son sus objetivos:

http://www.cij.gov.ar/adj/ADJ-0.879233001226861360.pdf

En lo demás, coincido con las observaciones que hace Maximiliano Marzetti.

Saludos,

As for Malaysia, the laws are naturally followed the common law style in draftsmanship. It is rather straight to the point. However, in matters of implementation, legal cases are needed to understand it.  For those who are not from legal backgrounds (i.e. laymen or common citizens), there is no different whether the wordings are simple or not. In order to understand the laws, they need to refer to either lawyers or academicians. Example of Statute: Contract Act 1950. Example of wording: the word "or" and "and". These two words sometimes are used in the Statute/Act with similar meanings, and sometimes they are used in their real meanings.  

For a brief and updated comparative overview, I recommend

Yaniv Roznai and Nadiv Mordechay, ‘Access to Justice 2.0: Access to Legislation And Beyond’ (2015) 3 The Theory and Practice of Legislation 333.

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/20508840.2015.1136151

Best,

Ittai

William J. P. Mulgrew, III 

Yes, in deed. But not only in what concerns legislation, but also jurisprudence.

In some procedures, people don't need to have a lawyer. How can they understand  the decision? 

Isn't that fundamental to ensure people about the fairness of the decision?

Thank you very much to all of you.

I will read the documentation and your messages to have a more clear idea about this matter.

All the answers will be welcome.

Ana Paula 

In France, the question of the simplification of the language in laws ans judicial decisions is current.

Concerning law, the Constitutional court "made" a constitutional goal of accessibility and intelligibility of the law. See Décision n° 99-421 DC du 16 décembre 1999.

http://www.conseil-constitutionnel.fr/conseil-constitutionnel/francais/les-decisions/acces-par-date/decisions-depuis-1959/1999/99-421-dc/decision-n-99-421-dc-du-16-decembre-1999.11851.html

Concerning judicial decisions, this question is a part of the French Quality Policy. Because of the European Convention for the Human Rights it's a quality indicator. It's a consequence of article 6-1 ECHR. The French administrative justice is particularly interesing because she tries to simplify its language. See the results of the research report below. I'm soory, it's only in french, but I can give more info if you need:

http://www.gip-recherche-justice.fr/publication/qualijus-aspect-administratif/

Em Portugal, como saberá, não temos, verdadeiramente, simplificação,  de linguagem. Contudo, tem havido alguma preocupação nesse sentido. Veja-se, por exemplo, a  Resolução do Conselho de Ministros nº 29/2011 que fixa regras de legística na elaboração de actos normativos e institui os resumos em linguagem clara a publicar no Diário da República, no âmbito do programa SIMPLEGIS. Mas não tenho constatado grandes melhoras.

What do you mean by "in order to improve citizenship?"  Do you mean, "if people understood the laws, they would obey them more?" or do you mean "People are increasingly detached from their governments and this may be owing to a failure to see how laws benefit their lives?" or do you mean something else?

Estimada Ana:

En México no conozco ningún esfuerzo sistemático para simplificar el lenguaje de la Ley o de las resoluciones judiciales, y no es un tema que se toque dentro del Derecho de Acceso a la Justicia, aunque es evidente que forma parte de él. Sin embargo, en materia jurisdiccional hay algunas cuestiones: a) Si el asunto involucra indígenas, éstos deben ser acompañados por un intérprete (no un mero traductor) para apoyarlos, traducirles y explicarles; b) En algunas de las instituciones impartición de justicia alternativa (no jurisdiccional, de mediación y negociación) se limita la intervención de abogados, y para ser mediador no se exige el título de abogado, a fin de que se hable en lenguaje ordinario, si bien la aprobación de los convenios siempre corresponde a un funcionario con formación jurídica; c) en los juicios orales mercantiles, la audiencia de sentencia tiene una parte en la que el juez debe explicar  (así dice la Ley) los motivos de su resolución, para después leer los puntos resolutivos de la sentencia.

Espero que el comentario sea útil.

Gustavo Molina 

Legal documents, legislations and court decisions are meant  to be done in legal language in its own wordings so that it gives the means and quality of it.

There is no law or Act of Parliament that enables simplifications of the legal languages and so if any layman want to understand the legal products, then it is better for that person to ask a Lawyer to explain and simple it or them in a simple English or own their own Vernacular.

The legal writing and its style of language has its long history and some its terms are of Latin and French language which one thy legal educated persons know and can interpret.

This is just a brief data for your information.

Mr. Mek Hepela Kamongmenan LLB of Papua New Guinea.

(Lawyer and Associate Lecturer of Laws)

In Nigeria, we certainly do not have any measures in that sense. If anything, our laws tend to use more legalese!

Dear Ana

I thought you might be interested in this Family Law decision from the UK. It is written very deliberately in plain English so that the parties, including the children, can understand it.

The case has received a lot of praise on social media and from human rights groups.

http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWFC/HCJ/2016/9.html

http://rightsinfo.org/family-law-judgment-written-plain-english-children-understand/

En México, puedes encontrar avances en materia administrativa. Por lo que respecta al plano normativo, la Ley Federal de Procedimiento Administrativo, en el Título Tercero A, Capítulo Segundo, creó la Comisión Federal de Mejora Regulatoria, que tiene como función principal revisar y evaluar a las instituciones de la Administración Pública, a fin de que cuenten con normas claras, así como trámites y servicios simplificados. Asimismo, por lo que se refiere a la emisión de documentos administrativos, las dependencias deben de observar el Manual de Lenguaje Claro, expedido por la Secretaría de la Función Pública, esto desde un enfoque de transparencia y rendición de cuentas.

Ahora bien, para la emisión y redacción de Jurisprudencias, el Poder Judicial de la Federación cuenta con lineamientos para formular una exposición clara del criterio que debe prevalecer. Y el acceso para la consulta de tesis se puede realizar con facilidad a través de una plataforma virtual. También debe destacarse el esfuerzo de la Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nación, de emitir documentos en lenguaje claro para que la ciudadanía tenga un mejor conocimiento del marco normativo, como ejemplo puedo citar "La Ley de Amparo en Lenguaje Llano".

Espero que te sea de utilidad y suerte en tu investigación.

LFPA (http://www.diputados.gob.mx/LeyesBiblio/pdf/112.pdf)

Manual (http://www.economia.gob.mx/files/empleo/ManualLenguaje.pdf)

Lineamientos (http://www.ordenjuridico.gob.mx/Federal/PJ/SCJN/Acuerdos/2003/AC-076.pdf)

Plataforma Virtual (http://200.38.163.178/sjfsist/Paginas/tesis.aspx)

Ley de Amparo Simplificada (http://www.sitios.scjn.gob.mx/codhap/sites/default/files/acc_ref/LibroLeydeamparoenlenguajellano_0.pdf)

Hi Ana,

In Chile we have some initiatives in that sense. Supreme Court have created a special commision about "lenguaje claro" in judicial resolutions and sentence, you can find several infromation in http://www.pjud.cl/home?p_p_id=3&p_p_lifecycle=0&p_p_state=maximized&p_p_mode=view&_3_struts_action=%2Fsearch%2Fsearch&_3_redirect=%2F&_3_keywords=lenguaje+claro&_3_groupId=0&x=0&y=0

All the best,

Dr. LV Ferrada-Walker

Muchas Gracias, Luis.

If you're interested, I just heard that the Center for legislative studies (CETEL) in Geneva will have a conference about legislative simplification and bureaucracy in November:

Simplifier le droit

pour lutter contre la bureaucratie?

The details are attached. 

Ittay Bar-Siman-Tov: Thank's a lot. 

Ye Laird, thank you or your intervention.

It's a very hard sentence that one from Anthony Scalia.