Legal English

1. Legal English

2. How many subvarieties of legal English can you think of? • Legal documents: contracts, deeds, insurance policies, wills, many kinds of regulations • Works of legal reference, with their complex apparatus of footnotes and indexing • Case law: language made up of spoken and written decisions which judges make about indvidual cases

3. What is generally denominated legal language is… • … a mere technical language, calculated for eternal duration and easy to be apprehended both in present and future times

4. And it is… • Flawless • Unambiguous • Impenetrable • Complex syntax, full of apparent redundancy • Concern for coherence and precision • Respect for ritual and historical tradition

5. Some functions of legal English • Its statements have to be so phrased that we can see their general applicability… • … yet be specific enough to apply to individual circumstances • They have to be stable enough to stand the test of time… • …. yet flexible enough to adapt to new social situations • They have to be expressed in such a way that people can be certain about the intention of the law respecting their rights and duties

6. That’s why… • Complex syntax: • Lengthy sentences (because it tries to integrate several relevant issues in a single statement) • repetitive (because it needs to make clear whether a new point applies to everything which has previously been said) • Coordinated phrases and a long list of items (in order to reduce uncertainty about whether the law applies in a particular case)

7. Use of elaborate hypotactic constructions • widespread use of conditional clauses introduced by if/should/where, reflecting the cautious nature of legal decision making. • Organisation in paragraphs, with appropriate punctuation consisting of a frequent use of colons, semi-colons, numbers and spacing.

8. Small set of grammatical and lexical features • Modal verbs (must, shall, will) distinguish between obligation and discretion. • Pronouns (all, whoever) and generic nouns (hyperonyms e.g. vehicle person) help to foster a law’s general applicability • Certainty can be promoted by explicitly listing specific items (hyponyms)

9. The present and present perfect tenses are prevalent, in addition to the deontic shall where the obligations of law are concerned: • Upon receipt of any order by the agent for goods the said agent shall immediately transmit the above mentioned order to the principal…

10. Stylistically • Much Repetition or partial repetition • Resort of capital letters • Other emphatic devices • To stress the importance of the key features in a legal text:

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12. The tone is archetypally impersonal, often ritualistically conventional: In accordance with Article 3, sub-section (d), clause 13a

13. Lexis • Archaic terms so typical of English juridical jargon: • Whereas (premesso che) • Whereby (per cui, per la qual cosa) • Thereby (a causa di ciò, in merito) • Henceforth (d’ora in avanti) • Hereto (qui, a questo) • In witness thereof (in fede di ciò) • The aforesaid (di cui sopra)

14. Lexis • Many terms are used exclusively or predominantly within a legal context: • Tosue(citare, fare causa) • Warrant(ingiunzione, mandato, ordine) • Summons(mandato di comparizione) • Binding(vincolante) • Toenact(emanare) • Default(inadempimento)

15. Lexis • Typically legal collocations: • to claim damages (chiedere risarcimento), • to commit for trial (inviare a giudizio), • to draft a bill (redigere un progetto di legge);

16. Lexis • Others can be seen to belong to the legal and other sectors: • Mortgage (ipoteca) • Merger (fusione) • Patent (brevetto)

17. Locutions • Formulaic expressions of a ritualistic nature: • Given that (dato che) • In the evident of (nel caso di) • It is hereby certified (certifica) • I, the undersigned, … (il sottoscritto)

18. Verbs + prepositions: • To lay down (formulare) • Pertaining to (in riferimento a, riguardo a) • To provide for (provvedere, prevedere)

19. A number of fossilised expressions • Expressions of foreign or classical origin: • Ordinary care and skill (diligenza del buon padre di famiglia) • Without let or hindrance (senza alcun impedimento) • Malice aforethought (premeditazione) • Force majeure (forza maggiore) • Inter alia

20. Frequent use of twinned terms: • Right and privileges (diritti) • Aid and abet (essere complice) • Whereupon and wherefore (al che) • Goods and chattels (ogni sorta di beni mobili) • Null and void (nullo)

21. Specialist vocabulary employed • Precision in the choice of appropriate words and expressions is essential • Need to avoid ambiguity

22. We have seen in the lesson on business English that a feature of ESP texts is the specialist vocabulary employed. Precision in the choice of appropriate words and expressions is essential in many other specialist fields such as medicine and law. The need to avoid ambiguity is clear in the case of a legal document such as the text we have used here where people signing the contract have to be sure of their rights and obligations. This explains why we frequently encounter specialist lexemes which are monosemic, that is, they have one meaning only. A very clear example of monosemic expression is the title of the legal document we have chosen for our study text: Assured Shorthold Tenancy Agreement which is a very special type of letting arrangement referring to an agreement to rent a property for a short period only and protecting the owner’s right to regain immediate possession of the property at the end of the fixed period. If we analyse the term we can see that the two middle words shortholdand tenancy are truly specialist lexemes only used in a legal context: shorthold refers to the limited period in which property is rented and tenancy to the use of a building in return for fixed payments( ie rent); whilst the first and the last words assured and agreement have a much wider usage. Nonetheless taken as a whole unit of meaning, the expression is clearly monosemic.

23. However, not all ESP vocabulary is monosemic. For example the term landlord means the owner of property but also the person who runs a public house. In this case there is a relationship between the two meanings for although the person running the public house may not strictly be the owner but a manager, in the past he was the owner. The semantic relationship between the meanings of the word provision is even less evident since it has two distinct meanings when used in the plural : 1) supplies of food and all necessary items 2) conditions in a legal document. Although once again the reference to providing for needs is common to both. In some cases their appears to be absolutely no semantic association between the meanings of a word. For example the word effects which means 1) personal belongings 2) the results or consequences of something.

24. Generally speaking we refer to words with more than one meaning as polysemes. However words like “effects” with meanings which have no semantic connection are usually called homonyms. The problem with words which have more than one meaning is that of creating ambiguity. However we can clearly see from the examples in our text that the correct meaning of the word is made immediately transparent by the context, in our case a legal document. So although many of the words are polysemic we can say they are monoreferentialsince, used in this particular context, there is absolutely no risk of ambiguity.

25. Problems: • Culture-bound terminology…

26. Goal of a simplified, universally intelligible legal English

27. The Plain English Society runs the Plain English Campaign; this campaign is intended to reduce the amount of jargon and deliberate obfuscation that comes from specialised services. The Plain English Society (www.plainenglish.co.uk) publishes on the web the A-Z guide of legal phrases. This guide is deliberately aimed at non-lawyers and non-specialist readers who need explanations for legal phrases used by lawyers practising the law in England and Wales. The Plain English Society describes itself as 'an independent organisation fighting for crystal-clear language and against jargon, gobbledygook and other confusing language.' The Society awards an internationally recognised 'Crystal Mark' to award a document for clarity of language. The Society has had a major impact in Britain over the past few decades; legal English is one of the Society's areas of focus.

28. All Britons need some basic understanding of the law; most will encounter legal English in the form of employment contracts, credit agreements, loan agreements, mortgage contracts and rental agreements. Moreover, many Britons take an active interest in legal changes in those areas which touch everyday lives, for example, SUS laws (laws governing whether someone can be stopped on suspicion of committing a crime), property, anti-social behaviour, financial matters, euthanasia, sexual activity, petty crime, and motoring.UK newspapers are a useful starting point for the student of legal reporting; many high-profile crimes are followed in the press, and as TV cameras are as yet banned in British courtrooms, some reports may still carry an artist's work depicting courtroom proceedings.