The idea to translate Burgelijk Wetboek (BW) and Wetboek van Koophandel (WvK) for Indonesia into the English language, emerged in the year 1979, when I was practicing as a legal consultant, besides as a lecturer in Commercial Law at the law Faculty of the University of Indonesia.
Later, when I joined Law Firm “Makarim & Taira S” in the year 1982, to translate the whole positive law which was connected with our daily work, it became a must because it was a requirement. In the beginning we translate only partially and limited to the Articles, connected with the cases I was handling, such as: contract drafting, preparation of joint-ventures, banking matters, taxes, corporate matters, legal papers, etc. In the year 1984, Nono Anwar Makarim, SJD., and Frank Taira Supit, BA, JD., both alumna from Harvard Law School, urged me to translate the whole BW and WvK into English.
In the year 1986-1988, when I was a visiting scholar and student at the University of Washington, School of Law, Seattle, Washington, U.S.A., I got a assignment from Professor Dan Fenno Henderson to prepare two research papers on: “Sales Contracts in Indonesia” and “Development of Foreign Investment in Indonesia” with many references from the two law books mentioned above.
