a quo

08:38 Oct 16, 2009 

Latin is a dead language. Writers and translators use Latin vocabulary not to be fanciful or to show off their erudition but because the meanings of Latin terms have been established for a long time and they want their work to be understood in a specific way; otherwise, they would have use the terms found in their language. If the Latin term used here has to be translated as you suggested, the presumption that the text writer committed an a word-choice error still stands. Sorry to disagree.

10:54 Oct 12, 2009 

I do not imagine the learned judge who wrote the text made an error. However, in context "under consideration" works well enough. I have encountered this term before but not in such profusion. The use of this term in this way may be specific to Indonesian jurisprudence, however it is also possible that it is used in Dutch in the same way because Dutch is the source of a lot of Indonesian legal terms.

09:28 Oct 12, 2009 

It was difficult to translate your passage because of your repetitive use of ellipses, and one therefore had to use meanings that were close to the what a quo meant in Latin and in other languages that borrow that term. Your translation of "a quo" to "under consideration" will imply that the source-text writer made a word-choice error.

May I request you to present the full context and the translation replacing "a quo" with "under consideration" so we might be able to understand your translation. This is not to doubt your judgment but only to serve as a lesson to us all who might encounter the same puzzle/challenge in the future. Thanks.

05:17 Oct 1, 2009 

In the reference provided by Ikram Mahyuddin the following sentence occurs:-

Poin 2 dan 3: Pasal 12 dan 67 seperti itu (a quo) adalah bertentangan dengan UUD 1945: benarkah? Dan karena itu perlu dinyatakan sebagai (terhadap keseluruhan isi pasal 12 dan 67 itu) "tidak mempunyai kekuatan hukum mengikat dengan segala akibat hukumnya": jadi, 'suka-suka' saja?"

However I do not believe "a quo" is equated with "seperti itu" in that sentence. It seems to me that the phrase "a quo" in brackets specifies what is meant by the vaguer phrase "seperti itu". Contextually, I get the impression that "a quo" means something like "(the legislation, regulation, etc.) under consideration here/at hand" but I am just guessing.