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We see them in public discourses, Filipino lawyers and people of the law expressing their opinions and rebuttals in English. We see them stored up in voluminous heights, documents of trial proceedings written in English. Our courts are alive with people engaging in the litany of judicial trials in English. For a layman who has no grasp of the motions of court trials, the experience could well be both overwhelming and confusing, not only on account of the case itself, but also on the awesome impact of the language being extensively used during the whole process.
English, though considered the second language of many Filipinos (and first language to some) (Graddol, 1997) continues to strike up controversy among sectors of the society those who feel that our own national language, i. e. , Filipino, and therefore our nationalism are threatened by the widening popularity of English; those who fear that the underprivileged and non-English speaking litigants are deprived of justice; and / or those who simply could not and would not accept that there is such a language with absolute accuracy to equate to fair interpretation of law and therefore fair rendition of judgment. This paper intends to express a hypothesis that argues: The use of the English language in the Philippine judicial system ensures accurate interpretation of the law and therefore fair rendition of judgment. As such, the paper hopes to show that the use of the English language in the law profession does not necessarily put the English language in a pedestal of absoluteness, nor its use deprive justice to non-English speaking litigants and nor does it follow that we lose our nationalism when we speak and use the language. History of the Philippine Justice Systems Language according to the Constitution The influence of the West, first the Spanish then the Americans, is ever apparent in the Filipino life.
Governance of its people controlled and manipulated in the last 350 years since its independence in 1935 necessitates adoption of its colonizers justice system. Juco (1969) articulated that Filipinos wanted independence but not many of them really knew what was going on when we were drafting our constitution in 1934 - 1935. The form and the manner by which independence was to come was left not to the common Filipino citizen, but to the more informed segment of the society the elite. Thus, by virtue of the Things-McDuffie Act of 1934, the draft of the Philippine constitution patterned after the United State of Americas constitution was began and to be completed the following year. In 1921 (Sibayan, 1999), then US President McKinley instructed the Philippine Commission to use English as the medium of instruction in schools, which became the dominant language in several domains such as those in the courts of law, legislation, government, international relations, business and industry. The Philippine constitution has been ratified and amended in 1971, 1973, and 1986.
Not much changes were introduced and though renamed and re-titled, the one single provision that remained unchanged is that one found in both 1973 and 1986 charters, under Article XVI, General Provisions, section 3 stating that this Constitution shall be officially promulgated in English and in Filipino, and translated into each dialect spoken by over fifty thousand people, and into Spanish and Arabic. In case of conflict, the English text shall prevail. (emphasis mine). Juco seemed to have succinctly expressed his wariness about how our constitution could have taken a different course if the Filipinos back then had been more vigilant, and literate, to insist integration of features unique to our culture. The more-informed segment of society, the elite comprising a minute population, was charged to make decisions and take steps toward independence for the whole nation. Why English? Much can be said about the seeming tolerance of the Filipinos to use the English language in defining its Constitution, much more in drawing the laws that govern the judicial system.
In the eyes of the self-proclaimed nationalists, its proliferation goes contrary to the nations aspiration of freedom, of acquiring a unique identity and of veering away from the shadow and therefore borrowed identity of its colonizers. But there seems to be veritably good reasons for using the language when it comes to the judicial system. Ma. Lourdes Bautista, Editor or Manila: the Linguistic Society of the Philippines (Sibayan, 1999) wrote that language has domains and sub-domains and even sub-sub-domains. These domains have (1) human population or users of language, (2) support groups and structures, and (3) a tradition of language use. The language domain of the law has for its population lawyers, judges, and professors of law to name just three.
Support groups and structures consist of law schools, law courts and the judiciary, the legislature, etc. The tradition of language use in law was Spanish during the Spanish colonial period but has shifted to English in the late 20 s. Bautista continued to state that the replacement of Spanish with English as language of the law took roughly three decades, a relatively short time in terms of language shift and replacement. The replacement had not been difficult because (1) the population in the domain consisting of judges and lawyers and interpreters was relatively few and therefore manageable; (2) the law was readily available in English and books and reading materials were easy to procure from the United States; (3) law schools soon taught the law in English and it did not take long before these English speaking, writing, reading users of the language were able to replace the Spanish-educated domain population of lawyers and judges. Bautista offers that it is important to remember that the population and some extent the support groups and structure have to communicate with each other in a particular language game. The Philippine law uses English as its main language and it is English of a particular register sometimes referred to loosely as legalese which the untrained cannot understand.
This person, the untrained or uninitiated in the legal parlance, is practically an outsider. In the light of the foregoing, is it then enough that a person speaks English to go through the motion of litigation or make judicial decisions and ensure the rights of the people are preserved? I will again quote Bautista in her definition of literacy. She contends that one is not just literate, period. To be highly literate, read well educated, in the modern world, is to be literate in the following aspects: (1) literate in intellectualized language that is used as the working language in science and / or the professions, i. e. , the language used in the domain; (2) literate in writing system; (3) literate in a register.
Literate in an intellectualized language for example English, Japanese, German, French, Spanish and Russian. Unfortunately while steps are now being undertaken to make Filipino an intellectualized language, it is far from being fully intellectualized to be useful as the main language for obtaining complete education. Take note of this last sentence which proves my point Bautista stresses that Filipino in its present state of development cannot be used for teaching and learning the various professions such as those of science, the law, medicine, engineering, etc. However, Filipino is hoped to gain the same posture as the English language in the Philippines since it is highly supported by the government and there are many users that keep it alive.
For the time being, it continues to be useful the area of creative writing, literature and the cultural arts. Literate in a writing system for example Roman alphabet, Cyrillic, Arabic writing, Chinese of Japanese or Korean character. Literate in what is technically called register or sub-register- for example, the law and medicine have different registers, that is, even if the texts in law and medicine are in English, the lawyer may not understand a text in medicine and the physician may not understand a text in law, etc. Registers have sub-registers and even sub-sub-sub-registers, thus the law has sub-registers of criminal law, constitutional law, etc. and medicine has sub-registers of ophthalmology, neurosurgery, cardiology, etc. Senator Miriam Defense Santiago (interview, 2003), an authority in the subject of law being a lawyer and a judge at the Regional Trial Court of Quezon City for five years, and later having been elected into senate, believes that English, at this time, is the best medium for the conduct of judicial trial in the Philippines for the following reasons: There are still many regions in the country where in addition to the local dialect, the only other language familiar to the town folks is English, not Filipino.
Filipino does not have the vocabulary for certain abstract concepts in law, such as intent, motive, simultaneous, conspiracy and other key words that are extremely important in criminal law and civil law. The medium of instruction in law schools is English. The medium of popular TV, which is presumably the most accessible form of media for the masses, is English, Filipino or English. If the language used by a TV show is Filipino, still the popular spoken form of Filipino is very far removed from the official spoken and written form in the judiciary. Filipino judges and prosecutors were educated in English. All the reference books in law are written in English, even CD ROMS containing legislations and jurisprudence are in English.
These court officers are periodically sent abroad to attend seminars, workshops or further studies conducted in English. Science has played a very significant and useful role in resolving issues of evidences presented to prove guilt or innocence of the accused. Forensic DNA analysis, for example, is now being widely used in the Philippines to aid the judicial branch in bringing the criminals to justice and exonerate the innocent (Tagapamalita 2002). Since science uses the English language as it domain, its participation in solving crimes in a country that has an English-bound judicial system proves useful and complementing that which it serves. Standard or Formal English is the language used in public discourse (Cruz & Quiazon 2001). It is characterized by the tendency to give full treatment to all conventions and elements required for grammatical sentences.
It is taught, unlike non-standard or Informal English, which is spoken and written without formal studies. Non Standard English includes regional expressions that are associated with dialects. At this point, we could arrive at a consensus that Philippine law is a meticulous, calculated and strictly guarded language arena. As Cruz and Quiazon would stress, of all the professions other than journalism, law is the most word-bound and which demands from its practitioners much speaking and writing, requiring the correct use of words, phrases, clauses, sentences and paragraphs. I might add that this strict adherence to Standard and Formal English, and having acquired the literacy described by Bautista earlier, make the deciding judge capable, equipped and aplomb to interpret and render a fair judgment. Foreign grants help propagate and ensure development of the Philippine judicial system aimed at providing the poor the same legal aid that a moneyed citizen gets (Asia Foundation 2002).
To a certain degree, these foundations are the watchdogs of our judicial system, understandably so since they help finance reforms. Philippine law thus has become open to such reforms offered by international organizations necessitating adoption of developments that may be inspired by foreign culture to make it acclimate to international law. If not English, can Filipino be a good alternative language for the Philippine justice system and will it guarantee fair interpretation of law and preservation of our nationalism? Earlier in this essay, ...
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Research essay sample on English Language Judicial System
