Language of Law | Legal
English
Marinescu Felicia | Radu Diana Cristina | 3rd year |
English minor
Overview on Legal English
Referred to as a sublanguage as it differs from ordinary English in
matter of :
Vocabulary
Morphology
Syntax
Semantics
Legalese pejorative term associated with the traditional style
of legal writing that is part of the specialized discourse of lawyers
Poor legal writing : cluttered, wordy, indirect, use of
unnecessary technical words
usually considered reader-unfriendly
the 4Cs : Clear, Correct, Concise, Complete =
characteristics of good legal writing style
Genres of Legal English
Academic
legal writing law journals
legal writing court
judgements
Juridical
legal writing laws,
regulations, contracts, treaties
Legislative
Language
used to communicate with
clients reader-friendly
Concrete use of Legal English
Legal documents contracts, licenses
Court pleadings summonses, briefs, judgements
Laws Acts of Parliament and subordinate legislation, case reports
Legal correspondence
Generally
used by English-speaking countries common law tradition
Legalese
is also the language of international business & the legal
language within the EU, which led to it becoming a global phenomenon,
known as
LAWSPEAK
Historical
development
of Legal
English
Modern Legal English is
based on standard English,
mostly.
Has unusual features related
to :
Terminology
Linguistic structure
Linguistic conventions
Punctuation
Legal English differs greatly from standard English in a number
of ways. The most important of these differences are as follows:
Ordinary words used with special meanings. For example, the familiar term
considerationrefers, in legal English, tocontracts, and means,an act, forbearance or
promise by one part to a contract that constitutes the price for which the promise of
the other part is bought. Other examples are: construction, prefer, redemption,
furnish, hold,andfind.
Lack ofpunctuation. One aspect of archaic legal drafting particularly in conveyances
anddeeds is the conspicuous absence of punctuation. In modern legal drafting,
punctuation is used, and helps to clarify theirmeaning
Use of unfamiliarpro-forms. For example,the same, the said, the aforementionedetc.
The use of such terms in legal texts is interesting since very frequently they do not
replace the noun which is the whole purpose of pro-forms but are used as
adjectives to modify the noun. For example,the said John Smith.
Use ofpronominal adverbs. Words likehereof, thereof,andwhereof are not often
used in ordinary modern English. They are used in legal English primarily to avoid
repeating names or phrases. For example,the parties heretoinstead ofthe parties to
Ambiguity and Misunderstanding
Chicken
A ship
Frozen
chicken
A young bird
suitable for
broiling or frying
Peerless
leaving in
October
Manufactured
products
Any suitable
member of the
species
regardless of
age
Peerless
leaving in
December
Agricultural
commodities
Syntactic ambiguity
In English, this kind is most often due either to the order
of the words in a sentence or to grammatical properties,
such as the relationship between a pronoun and possible
words to which the pronoun may refer. There are court
cases where syntactic ambiguity has become a life-ordeath issue. The Supreme Court of the United States
must decide the constitutionality of a jury instruction
that contains an adjective followed by several nouns.
Does the adjective modify only the noun immediately
after it or all of the nouns in the series? Even though the
distinction may seem rather trivial, this instruction
originally was given to a jury deliberating in a capital
case. Now a mans life is to hinge on the Courts
resolution of the ambiguity!
Metaphor and Legal Fictions
He
ar
t
Va
se
L
a
w
Br
ok
en
Pro
mis
e
Le
g
The law too has expressions that
began as metaphors for example, a
meeting of the minds, a ripening of
obligations, a binding agreement, a
broken contract. However, the law
has found the need for an even more
intriguing kind of metaphor the
legal fiction. Acknowledged not to
be literally true, nonetheless fictions
are treated as though they were. Lon
Fuller, who was a law professor at
Stanford University and whose book,
Legal Fictions, is now a classic,
introduced this topic to the Englishspeaking legal community.
