Judges’ perspectives on Malaysia’s bilingual legal system

ABSTRACT

Use-based Englishes may act as professional gatekeepers and working languages in Asian societies even where other languages of wider communication are prioritised. Legalese is widely regarded as particularly resistant to societal changes, and in Malaysian law English remains indispensable half a century after Malay became the official medium for West Malaysia, with exonormative acrolects retaining professional prestige. However, legal practitioners also need Malay as it is a requirement for admission to the bar and used extensively in government dealings, as well as in the lower courts of West Malaysia. Courtroom discourse is under the control of judges empowered to interpret language policy in the interests of justice. While there have been a few studies exploring how Malaysian advocates orientate themselves toward bilingualism, this is believed to be the first to address the perspective of judges.

KEYWORDS:

• Bilingualism
• code-switching
• hybridity
• legalese
• legal English
• Malaysia

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Subordinate Courts (Amendment) Act 2010.

2. Frequently referred to, even in English, as Bahasa Melayu, Bahasa Malaysia, or BM.

3. Personal communication from JLS officer, 29 November 2020.

4. Federal Constitution, Article 122AB.

5. The arguments include the question of what constitutes Malay, given that local varieties, such as Sarawak Malay, may be unintelligible to speakers of Standard Malay.

6. National Language (Application) Enactment 1973.

7. English is described as a ‘strong second language’ in the Third Malaysian Plan of 1976.

8. Notably under the controversial Science and Maths in English (PPSMI) programme.

9. ‘Language: I have chosen the peaceful way’. (3 March 1967). The Straits Times, p. 8.

10. Section 8 of the National Language Acts 1963/67 now empowers judges ‘after considering the interests of justice in those proceedings’ to order proceedings ‘partly in English’.

11. Article 161 of the Federal Constitution.

12. The designation ‘translation’ need not reflect the actual production process as documents thus labelled may have been the source texts.

13. Order 92, Rules of Court 2012.

14. Nanti orang marah hakim [someone may get angry with me].

15. Powell (2020) noted several instances of Malay being used orally to support English-medium teaching.

16. The Civil Law Act 1956 allows the application of the common law and rules of equity of England and statutes of general application in Malaysia.

17. Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim(2010). In Harcharan Singh Piara Singh (2011), the Federal Court held that judges enjoy a wide discretion to conduct proceedings and provide grounds of judgment in either language without their choice being open to challenge.

18. The use of prepositions with verbs where Inner Circle Englishes might tend to use them only with nouns is widespread in Malaysian English.

19. While not referenced by any informant, from time to time there are comments by politicians in the press, and even in lawyer forums, to the effect that the national language should be used much more in the legal system.