les voix: For/Getting｜Re/Membering

Just a quick and rough thought…

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There is a saying in Taiwan that law protects only those who understand it, which is however, somewhat ironically, a reality.

Most people are taught to obey law, whether they know what law means to them or not. They often misunderstand, or even refuse to understand, legal texts, and therefore, their lives are subject to uncertainty and precarity notwithstanding the rights guarantees provided by law.

The Plain Law Movement thus emerged in this context, organised by a group of legal professionals of diverse fields and experiences, who hope to create a new media public and engage Taiwanese people in learning, interpreting, discussing, and monitoring law and legal development.

We, singly and collectively, try to communicate our ideas regarding the rule of law via different channels, and we all believe that it is possible to transform the formalistic and outdated legal culture through a social movement from below.

To make law ‘plain’ – and societally comprehensive – does not reduce any of its gracefulness and significance but promotes its legitimacy, acceptance, and respectability in terms of public attention and democratic deliberation.

Hence, the Plain Law Movement – as a forum dedicated to bridging the gap between lawyers, policy-makers and the public – aims not to ‘teach’ people how to think legally but to help make their voices louder and their lives easier with our legal knowledge.

We also believe, only when one can feel taken seriously and considered as a worthwhile member of the society, she/he would be capable of seeing and recognising other members’ struggles and accordingly take actions.

After all, to subvert the saying as mentioned earlier, we encourage people not only to understand law but also to eventually create a legal culture that accounts for every member’s needs and attends to social injustice phenomena.