________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________
Journal of Foreign Language Teaching
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ and Applied Linguistics
__________________________________________

Legal English and Plain Language in Kazakhstan: Law Reviews

Analysis Case Study

Andrey Reshetnikov
KIMEP University, Almaty, Kazakhstan

Abstract: Legal language has always been an area barely Key words:
accessible to non-professionals. However, ‘plain language English for specific
movement’ widely documented since 2004 in English speaking purposes; Legal
countries has facilitated understanding of legal language for English; Law
laypeople (Williams, 2004). In other countries where English is reviews; Kazakhstan
used in business communication legal language should also be
made more available to the wider public. No research, however, Article History
has been done so far to evaluate the accessibility of legal English Submitted: 11.03.2018
in Kazakhstan. Accepted: 15.05.2018
In this case study legal English in Kazakhstan is analysed to see
how far it corresponds to the principles laid down in the
proposals of plain language movement (Williams, 2011, p. 140).
The samples of law-reviews are put through lexicogrammar
analysis, and the insights from the field of law are used to
facilitate interpretation of some data.
The research findings indicate that legal English used in the
collected samples of law-reviews lacks in accessibility to the
general public. For instance, on the lexicogrammar level the
amount of passive voice is found to be high, the other aspects of
analysis also imply little accessibility of the texts. Thus, it might
be assumed that there is more to be done in the field of English
for legal purposes in Kazakhstan. Lawyers have always been in
need of good communication skills, including the ability to
explain legal issues to non-professional audiences (Stevenson,
1978, p.33). Unfortunately, research data suggests these
communication needs are not always properly addressed at the
university level.

7
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________
Legal English and Plain Language in Kazakhstan: Law Reviews Analysis Case Study
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________

INTRODUCTION

The language of law has many features specific to the discipline and tradition of the legal
profession which have been developing over the centuries in different countries. It is deeply
rooted in the legal culture and the system of law often notorious for obscure terminology
and complex syntax. In every country the law speaks a different language accessible only to
a professional who is aware of both the legal system and the language of that country.

Unlike many other disciplines, like medicine, for example, law cannot be understood
universally. Even though English has long become one of the most universal languages of
communication, the language of legal English is country specific, it has the “system-bound
nature” (Paltridge&Starfield,2012, p. 213). Legal system defines the language of law which,
according to Osakwe (2008, p.19) has “its distinct grammar, terminology and lexicon […]
its own idiosyncratic flavour and contextual nuances”. To continue the parallel with
medicine, in contrast with human body parts which in different languages mean the same,
legal notions vary in terms of the context of a given country. This lack of homogeneity is
quite detrimental to the universal character of English. It cannot be used without great deal
of prudence to refer to any aspect of a foreign law.

Legal English should have the origins. They are to be found in the countries where English
has been used to create the law. These countries, especially the United Kingdom and the
United States, have made English a standard of legal language worldwide. They might be
called legal English source countries.

When international communication takes place in the countries where English is not an
official language the law is often translated from the language of that country into English.
Many questions appear, for instance, about what legal English to use, or how to find the
equivalents in legal terminology. The fact that almost all of the legal English source
countries are the countries of common law and a target country often has a civilian structure
means that those equivalents are not easily found. In the common law countries legal terms
are explained in the court precedents while civil law provides terminology in the codified
legislation. Legal term should be traced following the line of argumentation of a judge
issuing the precedent and then be compared with the meaning it is given by the law of the
target country.

Finally, legal English is difficult to understand as a language. It is full of specific vocabulary

and incomprehensible grammar structures which make it extremely hard to decode even for
the native English speakers, non-specialists in law. Williams (2004) finds following
characteristics of written legal English which contribute to the complexity of the language:
archaic words, foreign expressions, complex sentences, passives, impersonal style, and
nominalization.

FEATURES OF WRITTEN LEGAL ENGLISH

The features common to written legal English were described by Christopher Williams
(2004; 2011) in his articles about legal English in terms of plain language movement. There
is, in fact, plenty of material on the subject of teaching legal English in plain language (e.g.
Garner, 2001;Cutts, 2013). These features include:

8
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________
Journal of Foreign Language Teaching
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ and Applied Linguistics
__________________________________________

a) archaic vocabulary. Legal English is full with obsolete words and expressions in virtually
every part of speech. The examples of archaic language are the verbs such as to darraign
(to clear a legal account or settle an accusation or controversy), or nouns such as
surrenjoinder (the answer by the plaintiff to a rejoinder by the defendant).

b) foreign expressions. The language reflects historical changes which include some of its
Latin origins, e.g. ex parte (one of the involved parties is not present or not represented),and
further influenced by French language, e.g. profits à prendre (the right to take the fruits of
the property of another).

c) complex sentences. Legal English is full of qualificational insertions so that the letter of
law to be as precise as possible. Principle of all-inclusiveness adds to the complexity of
sentence structures. This principle reflects the idea that the law should cover every possible
scenario under its regulation.

d) passives.There is the abundance of passive constructions in the language. According to

Williams (2004) approximately one quarter of all finite verbal constructions in legal English
takes the passive form.

e) impersonal style. The language is written in impersonal manner distancing the law from
the subjects it governs. Impersonal style is achieved by generalized use of the third person
(singular & plural).

f) nominalization. Legal English is a highly nominalized language. There is a marked

tendency towards nominalization where verbs are transformed into nouns.

All of these features of legal English not only make it hard to penetrate for an outsider, they
also make it a unique phenomenon. If legal English sustains these qualities within the
context of countries where other languages are spoken, there might be a potential for finding
similarities among the multitude of legal Englishes. Kazakhstan is an example of the country
where legal English is widely spoken in the legal & business discourse community.

LEGAL ENGLISH IN KAZAKHSTAN

Legal language in Kazakhstan has its own characteristics. Kazakh is the national language
and Russian is the language of international communication which makes its status equal to
Kazakh. Consequently, the law is written in Kazakh and Russian languages. English has
long ago entered into Kazakhstani legal discourse with the global phenomenon of English
being a Lingua Franca in business, commerce, and law. Legal professionals explain the local
law in English in such cases. They form legal English discourse community, where most of
the individuals have local legal background coupled with the knowledge of English as their
non-native language and some understanding of law of the legal English source countries.
They have to deal not only with a mismatch between the language of local law and English
language but between civil law and common law in a more general context.

Legal system in Kazakhstan stems from the Soviet Union model of law. There is no unified
opinion as to the nature of the Soviet Union legal system. The point upon which almost
everyone agrees is that Soviet legal system was “essentially a civilian structure” and, thus,
had the elements of Romano-Germanic law (Butler, 2014, pp. 1-12). After Kazakhstan

9
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Legal English and Plain Language in Kazakhstan: Law Reviews Analysis Case Study __________________________________________

gained independence it retained the legal system left as a legacy from the Soviet Union. The
law, however, did not remain frozen since then: it has been in constant change ever since to
reflect the dynamics of market economy and the process of integration of the country into
the international community.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

Existing practice of English usage in the legal and business practice allows for the claim
that in Kazakhstan there has been developing legal English peculiar to the region but
possibly similar to the legal English in the countries of common law. The research questions
are the following:

1. Are the features of written legal texts of the legal English source countries reflected in the
discourse of legal English community in Kazakhstan?

2. What is the difference between legal English of the source countries and legal English in
Kazakhstan in terms of those features?

METHODOLOGY

Data is collected from the web-sites of the international law firms that operate in
Kazakhstan. They work in the context of national law but service foreign clients, mostly
international companies that keep coming into Kazakhstani market or that have business
related to this country. English language is used in the daily communication between firms
and their clients. The majority of lawyers employed by the law firms are local people whose
native language is Kazakh and/or Russian. They use English as their second language for
the variety of purposes, including communication with their clients.

Even though those clients might probably have the legal resources to deal with a problem
they are not aware about the particularities of the Kazakh legal system. Extending the
Stevenson’s idea about the legal professionals’ need “to be able to adapt his or her written
discourse on legal issues to communicate with non-lawyers” (1978, p. 33) Kazakh
specialists have to explain the specifics of the local law while using English as their non-
native language.

There is a variety of forms of lawyer-client communication where English is used. Written

forms of communication include e-mails, reports, legal memoranda, to name just a few. One
of the genres of this professional communication is a law review. Legislation in many
countries is not a fixed phenomenon; it is prone to change in order to reflect modern realities
of business practices worldwide and in a given country. Kazakhstan, as was already
mentioned, is far from being an exception: the law is constantly created or amended. Law
firms usually communicate these novelties to the clients in the form of a law review (also
called legislation review, or legal alert). Law reviews might be considered as a separate
genre of legal writing together with other genres identified by Bhatia (1993). However,
nothing in the literature about genre analysis indicates about the presence of law reviews as
a subject of the scientific investigation. There is a body of research which analyses the genre
of newspaper law reports (Badger, 2003). They concern court cases establishing legal
precedent which are so important in the countries of common law. Law reviews, on the other

10
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________
Journal of Foreign Language Teaching
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ and Applied Linguistics
__________________________________________

hand, are about changes in codified legislation. Thus, these genres though close in their
purpose to describe new phenomena in law, are different in their internal structure.

Law reviews are subject of analysis in this article. Seven 1 000 words length samples of law
reviews written in English and published between 2015 and 2017 were analysed. Six
samples are from different law firms treating changes in legislation of the Republic of
Kazakhstan. One sample is about the changes in the US legislation.

Lexicogrammar method was used to analyse the data in the samples. Lexical and
grammatical features of the texts were looked into in order to find the elements of written
legal English mentioned by Williams (2004).

Knowledge of local law and legislation helped to interpret some of the data in the
Kazakhstani law reviews.

FINDINGS
The samples show that almost all of the elements of legal English described by Williams
(2004) are present. The data is summarised in the Table 1. Details about the samples are to
be found in the Appendix.

Table 1. Features of written legal English in Kazakhstan

Sample Feature Example

1 archaic language
foreign words and
2 discussions aimed, inter alia, at bringing the country’s
expressions
3 complex sentences
4 passives
5 nominalization
“Potential consequences of this innovation are subject
to further clarification in the context of the preamble to
the Arbitration Law and definitions contained therein”.
“The accession of Kazakhstan to the WTO was
preceded by the 19 years of negotiations and
legislation in line with the rules and requirements of the
WTO”.
“Under the amended version of the Competition Law,
acquisition by a person (or group of persons) of voting
shares (interest) in an undertaking if, as a result of such
acquisition, the acquirer will obtain the right to control
more than fifty per cent (50%) of such shares (interest),
provided that prior to the acquisition the acquirer
did not control, or controlled, fifty per cent (50%) or
less of the voting shares (interest) in the undertaking,
is deemed to be ‘economic concentration’ and can be
completed only with consent form the competition
authority”.
“The regime of voidness means that it is not required
to prove transaction invalidity in court, because its
voidness is explicitly provided for by laws. Only in
case of a dispute, the transaction invalidity is to be
established by court”.
“Before adoption of the Amendment Law, the
obligation of distributing the case materials to the

11
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Legal English and Plain Language in Kazakhstan: Law Reviews Analysis Case Study __________________________________________

opposite party and third parties was imposed on the

person submitting the documents (claimant,
defendant)”.

Sample 1 contains the word “therein” which is archaic term with a meaning of “in this
document”. Expression “inter alia” found in Sample 2 is a Latin expression which means
“among others”. Sample 3 provides a number of instances of the all-inclusiveness principle.
First, a notion of “person” is enlarged to include a “group of persons”. In a similar fashion
the term “shares” includes “interest” because Kazakhstan law distinguishes between two
corporate organization forms: the a capital of joint stock company is divided into shares
while the capital of a limited liability company into proportions which might be called an
“interest”. Then qualificational phrase follows, it puts an additional condition for an
undertaking to fall into the category of an ‘economic concentration’. The passage of Sample
4 is relatively small, however, it contains three passive forms, “is not required”, “is
explicitly provided”, and “is to be established”, placed quite close to each other. The
sentence of Sample 5 has the words “adoption” and “obligation” which are nominalized
forms of the verbs “to adopt” and “to oblige”.

Comparative analysis of the legislation reviews is reflected in the Table 2 below. The
samples of the US and KZ legislation reviews feature the tax reforms in the respective
countries which took place in 2017. The reviews are made and published by the same law
firm located in both countries.

Table 2. Features of written legal English: the US vs KZ

Sample Archaic Foreign Complex vs simple Passive vs active

language words sentence ratio structure ratio
6 (US) 0 0 9/17 – 0.529% 19/35 – 0.542%
7 (KZ) 1 0 7/14 – 0.5% 31/33 – 0.939%

As can be seen from the Table 2 archaic language and foreign words are absent in both
samples except for the latter being used once in Sample 7. Complex and simple sentences
are found in almost the same proportion with the latter number being twice as big as the
former. On the other hand, in Sample 7 there many more instances of passive structures than
in Sample 6, 31 compared to 19, while the number of active sentences does not differ much.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Results indicate that all features, except impersonal style, of written legal texts of the source
countries are reflected in the discourse of legal English community in Kazakhstan. It means
that Kazakhstani lawyers use linguistic features of legal English. One of the reasons which
could account for it is that the language native to the legal system in Kazakhstan uses similar
devices to describe various legal phenomena. For instance, passives in Russian and English
have the same function of distancing from the agent who performs an action. One the other
hand, law as the domain of social sciences is bound to maintain the core elements that remain
stable notwithstanding the legal system where it functions. For instance, the necessity for
the law to be as precise as possible to avoid controversial interpretations contributes to the
complexity of both Russian and English legal languages.

12
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________
Journal of Foreign Language Teaching
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ and Applied Linguistics
__________________________________________

Impersonal writing style as described in Williams (2004) was not found among the samples
of the law reviews. This may be due to the fact that the examples found there are taken form
the legislative acts, namely the Constitution of South Africa, the samples used in this
research, on the other hand, consist of law reviews. While legislation is a document with the
large scope of coverage, law reviews are context specific and written for particular audience.
As for the second research question, the features of the legal texts of the source countries
were found to be more prevalent in the Kazakhstani data sample than in the American
written text. This might be surprising given that the US is the source country of legal English
and Kazakhstan is not. Although the effect of the plain legal English movement in the
Western countries might have led to more ‘simplified’ US data. This may also indicate that
plain language movement has not yet reached Kazakhstan.

CONCLUSION

The research data suggests that legal English in Kazakhstan is a specific language which
having its own distinctive features is similar to the legal English of the source countries.
Rooted in the legal system of the post-Soviet country this language nevertheless shares
virtually every property of legal English of the United States or the United Kingdom. There
might be various reasons for that phenomenon. It appears that the law has intrinsic qualities
which do not vary.

The scope of this research is limited, one the one hand, by the small number of samples
selected for the analysis, and, on the other hand, by the specific genre of law reviews. Further
research must be made to encompass much bigger amount of data to draw some definite
conclusions about how plain legal English is in Kazakhstan. It is also important to look into
other written genres of legal English including, for example, legal contracts, e-mails,
memoranda, etc. There exist, however, a number of obstacles to obtaining the data other
than legislation reviews since the other written documents are not as readily accessible. One
of the attractive lines of the research seems to investigate the difference between legal
English in Kazakhstan and that of the legal English source countries.

The genre of law reviews seems to be neglected in the field of genre analysis of legal texts,
especially in case of the countries with civilian law structure. At the same time this genre
performs very important function of communication between lawyers and non-
professionals. Comparative analysis between two texts, US and Kazakhstani legislation
reviews, reveals that the latter sample is even more ‘complex’ in terms of the presence of
the law-specific features. Plain language movement which started a while ago in the West
seems not to have touched Kazakhstan so far as legal writing in English is concerned.

Legislation reviews should be made available to the lay audience who do not have access to
Kazakh legislation and/or any explanatory texts. Without access to the language of the law
of this country legislation reviews seem to be impenetrable from the outside of legal
profession. Plain language reform movement started in the West might improve the quality
of legislation reviews in Kazakhstan and to make them achieve their primary aim: to
establish a dialogue between lawyers and non-specialist audience. Consequently, students
of the law faculties in Kazakhstan must be taught the principles of plain English to bring
their communication on a new level of clarity.

13
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________
Legal English and Plain Language in Kazakhstan: Law Reviews Analysis Case Study
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________

APPENDIX SAMPLES OF LAW REVIEWS

1. New Kazakhstan Arbitration Law (retrieved 02/03/2018 from https://www.morganlewis.com/pubs/new-

kazakhstan-arbitration-law).
2. Review of main changes in the legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan related to the accession to the
World Trade Organization (retrieved02/03/2018 from
http://www.gratanet.com/en/publications/details/Review_of_main_changes_in_the_legislation_of_the_repu
blic_of_Kazakhstan).
3. Recent Amendments to the Competition Legislation (retrieved 02/03/2018 from
http://mwp.kz/presentation/legal-alerts/recent-amendments-to-the-competition-legislation/).
4. Brief Overview of the RK law intended to improve civil and banking legislation and conditions for
entrepreneurial activities (retrieved 02/03/2018 from
http://aequitas.kz/upload/files/Briew%20Overview_of%20the%20RK
%20Law%20Intended%20to%20
Improve%20Civil%20and%20Banking%20Legislation%20and%20Conditions%20for%20Entrepreneu
rial%20Activities.pdf/).
5. Latest Amendments To The Law On Arbitration And The Civil Procedure Code (retrieved 02/03/2018 from
https://www.dentons.com/en/insights/alerts/2017/march/29/latest-amendments-to-the-law-on-arbitration-
and-the-civil-procedure-code/)
6. Impact of Tax Reform on Real Estate (retrieved 02/03/2018 from
https://www.bakermckenzie.com/en/insight/publications/2018/02
/impact-of-tax-reform-on-real-estate
7. Kazakhstan Enacts New Tax Code (retrieved 02/03/2018 from
https://www.bakermckenzie.com/en/insight/publications
/2018/01/kazakhstan-new-tax-code)

REFERENCES

1. Badger, R. (2003).Legal and general: towards a genre analysis of newspaper law reports. English for
Specific Purposes, 22(3), 249-263.
2. Bhatia, V. (1993).Analysing Genre: Language Use in Professional Settings. London: Longman.
3. Butler, W. (2014).Russian Law and Legal Institutions. Wildy, Simmonds & Hill.
4. Cutts, M. (2013).Oxford Guide to Plain English: OUP Oxford.
5. Garner, B. A. (2001). Legal Writing in Plain English: A Text with Exercises: University of Chicago Press.
6. Osakwe, C. (2008). Russian Civil Code. Parts 1–3: Text and Analysis/Translation and Commentary.
Moscow: Wolters Kluwer.
7. Paltridge, B., & Starfield, S. (Eds.). (2012). The handbook of English for specific purposes (Vol. 120). John
Wiley & Sons.
8. Stevenson, D. (1978). Rhetoric and Law: Designing a Program in Communication for Law Students.
College Composition and Communication, 29(1), 30-35.
9. Williams, C. (2004). Legal English and plain language: An introduction. ESP Across Cultures, 1(1), 111-
124.
10. Williams, C. (2011). Legal English and Plain language: an update. ESP Across Cultures, 8, 139-151.

14