IF the man on the street finds legal gobbledegook a little easier to grasp in future, he will have two government law draftsmen to thank. Spring Fung Yuen-ching and Anthony Watson-Brown have come up with a system designed to help law draftsmen, and people writing rules and drawing up contracts, make the language simpler and more understandable. Ms Fung and Mr Watson-Brown wrote the guide on how to make complex legislation more understandable after three months' research at Britain's Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, which is attached to London University. The resulting paper is influencing law drafting in Hong Kong, and is now being published in Britain because the theory on how to analyse complex legislation and make it simpler can be useful in many countries. The European Union, which needs to send directives to its member countries in 10 different languages, are likely to use it in their translation of English laws. By making the language easier, it is hoped there will be fewer disputes over what it means. The difficulties of legal language in the laws were brought home to Ms Fung and Mr Watson-Brown, who together have 27 years' experience in law drafting, during the exercise in translating complex and often antiquated laws into Chinese. The translator first has to understand what the law means before he can put it into Chinese. 'Some legislation may remain in traditional form for some time before it is looked at again,' Mr Watson-Brown warned. 'But new legislation as it comes on-stream should be written in a clear style, with short sentences and more use of everyday English.' But the new style will not make the 41 law draftsmen's job any easier. 'It is the reading that should be easier, not the writing. In fact it's easier to write longer than to cut things down,' he added. This year, the law drafting division has drafted 2,500 pages of regulations and 1,460 pages of ordinances. Ms Fung and Mr Watson-Brown did their research after being selected from 80 applicants worldwide for two of the six Nuffield Foundation fellowships awarded last year. Theirs is the only paper to be published.