Extreme Case of Legalese

From my Bankruptcy textbook:
This entitlement arises, however, not from the phrase "indubitable equivalent" in Sec. 1129(b)(2)(A)(iii), but from the provision of Sec. 1129(b)(2)(A)(i)(II) that guarantees the secured creditor "deferred cash payments * * * of a value, as of the effective date of the plan, of at least the value of such [secured claimant's] interest in the estate's interest in such property.
-United Savings Assn. of Texas v. Timbers of Inwood Forest Associates, Ltd. (484 USC 365)

If the law is so complicated that citizens can't understand it without hiring professionals, how is it democratic? In one story I have a lawyer washing ashore on the Island of Otter People, to discover that all cases are tried by a council of drunken otters. Sometimes that seems like an improvement! Our legal system doesn't eliminate arbitrary or unjust decisions based on the whim of particular judges, and doesn't provide certainty of outcome -- thousands of casebooks, zero straight answers. Our country also seems to have accepted the idea that almost anything is within government's power and authority; Rehnquist was one of the few leaders willing to strike down well-meaning laws that abuse Congress' "interstate commerce" authority. Is there a way to streamline our legal system to make it comprehensible, yet effective?

One thing pointed out in Thomas Friedman's "The World Is Flat," a book on globalization, is that to remain economically competitive, our country needs to make it easy for people to start businesses, declare bankruptcy, hire and fire workers, and obtain credit. We're actually good in those areas so far; it scares me to think of what other countries' laws must look like, even in the places not run by dictators. (Actually, from Patent Law class, it sounds like maybe we should adopt the rest of the world's "first-to-file" patent system.)

The less people know about how laws and sausages are made, the better they'll sleep at night. -Otto von Bismark

Also, I've updated my Xepher.net page a bit. I'm not sure what else belongs there.