Plain Legal Language
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Recent papers in Plain Legal Language
The language of law is characterized by some features and peculiarities that make it difficult to understand for non-specialists in the field. The present article focuses on the need for plain legal language in order to guarantee... more
Lawyers are widely and resolutely criticised for their writing and communication skills. As Theodore Blumberg wrote: “Legal writing, despite centuries of criticism (constructive and otherwise) remains steadfastly awful.” So why do... more
This work points toward a need for a plainer legal language: a legal language that is not a wall between those seeking justice and justice itself. We, as Law professionals, have become increasingly comfortable with a type of technical... more
As is well known, the Plain language movement has been influential in a number of areas of public life over the last few decades. Within the legal sphere it has raised general awareness concerning the need to make legal matters and legal... more
This paper addresses the issue of incomprehensible consumer contracts – the small print. I argue that when people suffer loss because they did not understand a contract condition, we should view it as a cognitive accident. This changes... more
2.ª edición muy ampliada del manual teórico y práctico de expresión escrita para juristas noveles y expertos, publicado en 2012. Se centra en enseñar a redactar con un lenguaje sencillo, claro y correcto. También incluye una explicación... more
"Seven years have passed since ‘Legal English and Plain Language: an introduction’ (Williams 2004) was published. Since then several changes have occurred in the field of legal drafting in English-speaking countries and institutions which... more
In this paper I begin by briefly describing some of the main characteristics of written legal English which differentiate it from other genres, such as sentence length and the complexity of its sentence structures, repetitiveness, the... more
After an encouraging start, the state-sponsored plain language initiative ‘Progetto Chiaro!’ fizzled out several years ago. So Italians are once again left to grapple with the complexities of bureaucratese, an area still in need of... more
every profession has a specialized jargon associated to it, similar is the legal profession and the jargon used is called Legalese, but when the technical terms in such a communication gain a prevalence then the communication of the same... more
After centuries of following hidebound tradition and of using antiquated legalese, things finally seem to be moving, albeit slowly, towards a more modern drafting style. In this article I focus on three areas where changes are already... more
[Phenomenology of legalese] The quality of legal language and the theme of its obscurity constitutes an interesting subject of studies for both linguistic and legal scholars. To investigate the connection between the formal and the... more
Complexity of legal language and criticisms of its dense and incomprehensible character over the years has culminated in the Plain Language Movement. Two of the most significant steps taken in this Movement were the Plain Writing Act in... more
Plain Legal Language (PLL) emerged as opposed to legalese (traditional legal language) has been criticized for being archaic, incomprehensible and wanting of effective communication. Many developed countries have endorsed PLL in legal... more
The present paper is intended to be a practical guide for teachers who need to run writing for law classes for pre-experienced law students with no or little experience of academic or legal writing. It provides the teachers with advice on... more
A oferta de serviços públicos digitais (e-serviços) avança no Brasil, mas a população tem dificuldade para se engajar. Uma queixa comum é achar o contato com o governo pela internet complicado. Os obstáculos para interagir com governo... more
Young persons are one of the most vulnerable members of the community. Re-instantiating the law into a language accessible for young persons is helpful as law is one form of the protection of their rights. What if the re-instantiated... more
This research center profile describes the Simplification Centre, from its origin as a university research center to its present status as a not-for-profit dedicated to education and advocacy. We address the problem of poorly designed... more
The language of law is complex and needs to be investigated to facilitate its easy understanding. The present study addresses this need by analyzing a mini-corpus comprising two short texts taken from Pakistan's Code of Civil... more
Que el desconocimiento de la ley no exime de su cumplimiento es una de las máximas jurídicas que se pueden encontrar a día de hoy no solo en los sistemas jurídicos basados en el derecho continental, sino también en aquellos regidos por el... more
Nie miałem czasu na napisanie krótkiego listu, więc napisałem długi. Mark Twain Długie słowa sprawiają mi wielką trudność. Kubuś Puchatek Abstrakt Wraz ze wzrostem popularności idei " plain English " , czyli prostej odmiany języka... more
Can we dispense with lawyers as intermediaries between the law and its subjects? Can laypeople have direct access to the law? The Plain English Movement (PEM) has long promoted the use of plain language in legal writing as the way to... more
Trans activists in the UK might get confused by the phrasing in the 2004 Gender Recognition Act, section 9 (1), particularly by the phrase ‘for all purposes’: ‘Where a full gender recognition certificate is issued to a person, the... more
While human-oriented controlled languages developed and applied in the domain of technical documentation have received considerable attention, language control exerted in the process of legislative drafting has, until recently, gone... more
The present article aims at exploring the issue of intertextuality with reference to the specific usage of numbers in legal discourse. In this regard, the analysis of legal citations seems to be of particular interest to legal linguistics... more
Nella letteratura contemporanea è molto diffusa la tesi secondo cui la legislazione sarebbe una forma di comunicazione simile, se non identica, alla conversazione ordinaria e, pertanto, l’interpretazione legislativa costituirebbe una... more
In this volume the author examines verbal constructions in prescriptive legal texts written in English. Modal auxiliaries such as shall, may and must are analysed, as well as indicative tenses such as the present simple, and also... more
Standard forms of contracts are usually written in the traditional legal drafting style. They are difficult to read and understand by construction practitioners. This study aims to objectively assess the impact of contract drafting styles... more
Legal language has been a burden for lay people. A movement to ease the language has commenced many decades ago, but still facing criticisms from other experts. Robyn Penman was one of the hardest debater on this topic.
Plain Legal Language (PLL) emerged as opposed to legalese (traditional legal language) has been criticized for being archaic, incomprehensible and wanting of effective communication. Many developed countries have endorsed PLL in legal... more
"In the English-speaking world, contracts – like many other texts pertaining to the sphere of private law, e.g. wills – still tend to be littered with relics of a bygone era, such as archaic formulaic expressions (“now, therefore, this... more