Languages of the legal system of East Timor
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East Timor emerged as the world's newest state on 20 May 2002 with the transfer of sovereigny from the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET). Between 1975 and 1999, the national territory of this new Asian state was illegally[citation needed] occupied by its gigantic neighbour, Indonesia, during which occupation Indonesian law was applied.
Under the trusteeship of the United Nations, the legal system of East Timor was declared to be based on the laws of Indonesia, subject to the repeal of certain Indonesian legislation that was deemed to be inconsistent with human rights standards. UNTAET began enacting new laws for East Timor but only published them in English.
[edit] Criticisms
So the language of the legal system in East Timor began to complicate the operation of the judicial sector. This complexity was heightened when the new government and parliament began enacting laws in 2002 in only one of the country's official languages, Portuguese. So the languages in which the laws of East Timor are now written are an amalgam of Indonesian, English and Portuguese and this poses a significant difficulty for the rule of law since none of these languages is understood by the entire population.
The appointment of foreign judges who mainly speak Portuguese (or variations of Portuguese such as that found in Brazil) to the Courts of East Timor has made this rule of law problem even worse. Consider that the vast body of the applicable law of East Timor is written in the Indonesian language including such fundamental laws as the Criminal Code that prescribes offences and penalties - including the deprivation of the liberty of citizens for violations - and yet the judges who are tasked with the interpretation and application of these laws are unable to understand the language in which they are written. By this alone, one might characterise the implementation of the legal system in East Timor as irrational.
The course of justice is contorted and the legal rights of citizens are gravely jeopardised. Consider further a police force comprised largely of officers who grew up under the Indonesian occupation but who do not understand Portuguese trying to enforce the laws that are written in a language that is indecipherable to them? How can a police force be expected to uphold the law when its officers can not know what the law says because it has been promulgated only in a language that the empirical evidence shows is not understood by the people?
How can citizens know what their rights and obligations under the law are if they can not read it? Most lawyers in East Timor were educated in the Indonesian law schools and do not understand Portuguese so even if the poor could afford to consult a lawyer, they would be hard-pressed indeed to give advice.
When it comes to the issue of translation and interpretation, nuances of meaning are lost when a word or phrase is translated from one language into another. The translation and interpretation of legal language is even more difficult and prone to errors so even if the laws were translated, there would still be doubt over the precise meanings of the original legal texts even as there is doubt about the interpretation of law without the added complexities of having to translate it from one language into another, quite unrelated language.
A cloud of obscurity has been brought upon the legal system of East Timor by these language and policy decisions and ultimately, justice and the rule of law are endangered.
