the "englification" of laws is very easy to want, but impossible to implement - and those who want it would be pissed off if they actually got it.
Laws have a lot of big words and specific phrases in them for a reason. Defining "insanity" as the dictionary definition would not work in a courtroom. The dictionary says insanity is: "The condition of being insane. A derangement of the mind."
A derangement of the mind is impossible to define such that a jury can reliably decide if you're insane or not. It's entirely up to interpretation. Some people think (rightfully) that murderers are deranged. Some people think Star Trek fans who dress as Klingons for all the movie premieres are deranged. And they probably are, but is that derangement sufficient to absolve you of legal responsibility for killing someone? Such vagaries in common language are why common language cannot be used to spell out laws. In fact, it's unconstitutional to make a law so vague as to be impossible to reliably interpret, and laws which are that vague can be overturned.
Another example; The common definition of speeding is "driving too fast." So why don't we just have a law that says "don't drive too fast." OK. Now get Mario Andretti and your wife on a jury. Mario's gonna think "driving too fast" is somewhere north of 150mph. Your wife is gonna think you drive too fast in the driveway. Isn't it better that the law defines speeding as "driving in excess of the designated roadway's maximum speed, as posted on signs which shall be visible and distinguishable no less than (x) feet away by a person with normal 20/20 vision." Now it's all buttoned up for us. Not only do we understand that when the sign says 60mph, we're not speeding until we hit 61mph, even if our wives tell us to slow the hell down at 30. Not only that, but because the law was nice enough to even define a speed limit sign as pertaining to its visibility, a greedy city can't make signs the size of a postage stamp or make them white text on very light grey background so that we can't tell what the speed limit is and therefore get a ticket.
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the "englification" of laws is very easy to want, but impossible to implement - and those who want it would be pissed off if they actually got it. Laws have a lot of big words and specific phrases in them for a reason. Defining "insanity" as the dictionary definition would not work in a courtroom. The dictionary says insanity is: "The condition of being insane. A derangement of the mind." A derangement of the mind is impossible to define such that a jury can reliably decide if you're insane or not. It's entirely up to interpretation. Some people think (rightfully) that murderers are deranged. Some people think Star Trek fans who dress as Klingons for all the movie premieres are deranged. And they probably are, but is that derangement sufficient to absolve you of legal responsibility for killing someone? Such vagaries in common language are why common language cannot be used to spell out laws. In fact, it's unconstitutional to make a law so vague as to be impossible to reliably interpret, and laws which are that vague can be overturned. Another example; The common definition of speeding is "driving too fast." So why don't we just have a law that says "don't drive too fast." OK. Now get Mario Andretti and your wife on a jury. Mario's gonna think "driving too fast" is somewhere north of 150mph. Your wife is gonna think you drive too fast in the driveway. Isn't it better that the law defines speeding as "driving in excess of the designated roadway's maximum speed, as posted on signs which shall be visible and distinguishable no less than (x) feet away by a person with normal 20/20 vision." Now it's all buttoned up for us. Not only do we understand that when the sign says 60mph, we're not speeding until we hit 61mph, even if our wives tell us to slow the hell down at 30. Not only that, but because the law was nice enough to even define a speed limit sign as pertaining to its visibility, a greedy city can't make signs the size of a postage stamp or make them white text on very light grey background so that we can't tell what the speed limit is and therefore get a ticket.