You absolutely can get precision and plain language at the same time. See, for example, the English text of the GDPR. The ideal situation is that we only need

You absolutely can get precision and plain language at the same time. See, for example, the English text of the GDPR. The ideal situation is that we only need about half an hour of instruction (saying things much like your second paragraph) before a literate amateur can interpret most laws correctly. That instruction can then be given in schools: it could be lumped in along with all the other miscellanea ("here's how to vote", basic financial literacy, sex-ed, etc).