THE URGENCY OF REGULATIONS REGARDING SWORN TRANSLATORS FOR LEGAL CERTAINTY IN THE PREPARATION OF NOTARIAL DEEDS

Abstract

Notaries, as public officials, are authorized to draw up authentic deeds in the Indonesian language as mandated by Article 43 paragraph (1) of Law Number 2 of 2014 on the Amendment to Law Number 30 of 2004 concerning the Notary Position (UUJN-P) and Article 31 of Law Number 24 of 2009 concerning the National Flag, Language, Emblem, and Anthem. In practice, parties who do not understand Indonesian including foreign nationals often require the assistance of a translator to ensure that the content of a deed is fully understood before signing. The problem is that regulations governing the position, qualifications, and legal responsibilities of sworn translators who assist in the making of notarial deeds remain scattered, overlapping, and partly derived from colonial-era regulations such as Staatsblad 1859 Number 69 and Staatsblad 1894 Number 16, thereby creating a normative gap that potentially threatens the legal certainty of authentic deeds. This study aims to examine the urgency of specific regulations concerning sworn translators in the context of notarial deed-making and its implications for the validity and evidentiary force of deeds. The study employs a normative juridical method with a statute approach and a conceptual approach, analyzed qualitatively and prescriptively. The findings indicate that the absence of comprehensive regulation on the role of sworn translators in notarial deed-making creates uncertainty regarding legal liability when translation errors harm the parties, as well as ambiguity concerning the translator's position within the structure of an authentic deed. This study recommends harmonizing regulations among the UUJN-P, the Language Law, and the Ministerial Regulation on Sworn Translators, accompanied by specific technical rules binding notaries and sworn translators to guarantee legal certainty and protection for parties to a notarial deed.