Legalese

Legal writing in English has developed over hundreds of years and is characterized by specific
features, some of which can make it difficult for the non-lawyer to understand.
Characteristics of legal writing include: using Latin terms; using technical terms; using old-
fashioned words not much in general use; using pairs of words with a reciprocal relationship;
using legal jargon (`without prejudice to') including the use of pairs of words (`terms and
conditions'), or triplets (`build, erect or construct'); having special meanings for words in
ordinary use (`the judge determined the facts of the case', where 'determined' means `decided');
using vague words (`provide a sufficient service'); using long sentences with little punctuation;
inverting word order (`title absolute'); using capital letters to signal important or defined terms
(`the terms of the Lease ...') avoiding personal pronouns (`you', 'we', `I'); the specific use of the
modal verb 'shall' to impose an obligation or duty on someone (The tenant shall not sub-let
the whole or part of the premises.'); the use of 'shall' in a directory sense (Notice of an appeal
shall be filed within 28 days.').
There are many Latin terms in written English legal text, although recent reforms in the
English justice system have encouraged the use of English rather than Latin. Some Latin
terms are used so frequently that they are in general English use (e.g., ad hoc, bona
fide, pro rata, etc.). It is useful to be able to recognize their meaning and a dictionary or
online glossary will help. Forms of pronunciation vary.
A number of linking terms are used in older written legal texts (case reports, legislation, court
documentation, contracts, etc.) to refer to other parts of the same text, to different legal
documents, or to related contexts.
There is a movement to draft legal text in standard, modern, 'plain' English but any change will
be slow.

Plain English campaign

Since 1979, Plain English Campaign have been campaigning against jargon and misleading
public information. They have helped many government departments and other official
organisations with their documents, reports and publications. The organization believes that
everyone should have access to clear and concise information.

The campaign officially began after founder, Chrissie Maher OBE, publicly shredded hundreds
of official documents in Parliament Square, London. Entirely independent, they fund their work
through their commercial services, which include editing and training. Plain English campaign
has worked with thousands of organisations including many UK government departments, public
authorities and international banks, helping them make sure their public information is as clear as
possible.

Their Crystal Mark now appears on more than 23,000 documents worldwide.

Launched in 1990, and the first mark of its kind, the Crystal Mark is used by over 1600
organisations who want to provide the clearest possible information.

Plain English Campaign employs over 25 staff, most of whom work in its offices in New Mills,
Derbyshire. The campaign has a team of trainers who run the various training courses and
seminars that take place up and down the country. The editing team is believed to be the best
plain-English editing department in the world.

The busy administration department handles the day-to-day running of the campaign, and deals
with all enquiries, estimates for editing and testing, distributing documents. The department also
co-ordinates all the campaign's training courses.

The experienced team of editors comes from a wide range of backgrounds, but all have a great
deal of experience in making even the most difficult of documents understandable for everyone.
Each document that comes in is given to a particular editor. That editor will work closely with
the client throughout the editing process, to make sure that everyone is happy with the end result.
The department is also responsible for all proofreading and quality controlling documents.

The European Union

Before becoming a real political objective, the idea of uniting Europe was just a dream in the
minds of philosophers and visionaries. Victor Hugo, for example, imagined a peaceful ‘United
States of Europe’ inspired by humanistic ideals. The dream was shattered by the terrible wars
that ravaged the continent during the first half of the 20th century. However, a new kind of hope
emerged from the rubble of World War Two. People who had resisted totalitarianism during the
war were determined to put an end to international hatred and rivalry in Europe and create the
conditions for lasting peace. Between 1945 and 1950, a handful of courageous statesmen
including Robert Schuman, Konrad Adenauer, Alcide de Gasperi and Winston Churchill set
about persuading their peoples to enter a new era. New structures would be created in Western
Europe, based on shared interests and founded upon treaties guaranteeing the rule of law and
equality between all countries. Robert Schuman (French foreign minister) took up an idea
originally conceived by Jean Monnet and, on 9 May 1950, proposed establishing a European
Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). In countries which had once fought each other, the
production of coal and steel would be pooled under a common High Authority. In a practical but
also richly symbolic way, the raw materials of war were being turned into instruments of
reconciliation and peace.
The European Union encouraged German unification after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
When the Soviet empire crumbled in 1991, the former communist countries of central and
eastern Europe, after decades under the authoritarian yoke of the Warsaw Pact, decided that their
future lay within the family of democratic European nations. The enlargement process continues
to this day. Entry negotiations began with Turkey and Croatia in October 2005, while several
countries in the Balkans have set out along the road that could one day lead to EU membership.
Europe in the 21st century still faces safety and security issues. The EU has to take effective
action to ensure the safety and security of its members. It has to work constructively with the
regions just beyond its borders: the Balkans, North Africa, the Caucasus and the Middle East. It
must also protect its military and strategic interests by working with its allies, especially within
NATO, and by developing a genuine common European security and defense policy.
The European Union was created to achieve the political goal of peace, but its dynamism and
success spring from its involvement in economics. EU countries account for an ever smaller
percentage of the world’s population. They must therefore continue pulling together if they are to
ensure economic growth and be able to compete on the world stage with other major economies.
No individual EU country is strong enough to go it alone in world trade. The European single
market provides companies with a vital platform for competing effectively on world markets.
Europe’s post-industrial societies are becoming increasingly complex. Standards of living have
risen steadily, but there are still significant gaps between rich and poor. Enlargement has
widened the gap since countries have joined with living standards below the EU average. It is
important for EU countries to work together to narrow the gap. But these efforts have not been
made at the expense of compromising the separate cultural or linguistic characteristics of EU
countries. On the contrary — many EU activities help to create new economic growth based on
regional specialities and the rich diversity of traditions and cultures.

The EU wishes to promote humanitarian and progressive values, and ensure that mankind is the
beneficiary, rather than the victim, of the great global changes that are taking place. People’s
needs cannot be met simply by market forces or imposed by unilateral action. So the EU stands
for a view of humanity and a model of society that the great majority of its citizens support.
Europeans cherish their rich heritage of values, which includes a belief in human rights, social
solidarity, free enterprise, a fair distribution of the fruits of economic growth, the right to a
protected environment, respect for cultural, linguistic and religious diversity and a harmonious
blend of tradition and progress. The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union,
which was proclaimed in Nice in December 2000, sets out all the rights recognized today by the
EU’s member states and their citizens. These values can create a feeling of kinship between
Europeans.

The European Parliament

The European Union is more than just a confederation of countries, but it is not a federal state. It
is, in fact, a new type of structure that does not fall into any traditional legal category. Its
political system is historically unique and has been constantly evolving over more than 50 years.
The Treaties (known as ‘primary’ legislation), are the basis for a large body of ‘secondary’
legislation which has a direct impact on the daily lives of EU citizens. The secondary legislation
consists mainly of regulations, directives and recommendations adopted by the EU institutions.
These laws, along with EU policies in general, are the result of decisions taken by the
institutional triangle made up of the Council (representing national governments), the European
Parliament (representing the people) and the European Commission (a body independent of EU
governments that upholds the collective European interest).
The European Parliament is the elected body that represents the EU’s citizens. It exercises
political supervision over the EU’s activities and takes part in the legislative process. Since 1979,
members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have been directly elected, by universal suffrage,
every five years. The European Parliament (EP) is elected by the citizens of the European Union
to represent their interests. Its origins go back to the 1950s and the founding treaties, and since
1979 its members have been directly elected by the people they represent. Elections are held
every five years, and every EU citizen who is on an electoral roll is entitled to vote. Parliament
thus expresses the democratic will of the Union's citizens (more than 490 million people), and
represents their interests in discussions with the other EU institutions.
Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) do not sit in national blocks, but in seven Europe-
wide political groups. Between them, they represent all views on European integration, from the
strongly pro-federalist to the openly Eurosceptic. The European Parliament normally holds its
plenary sessions in Strasbourg and any additional sessions in Brussels. It has 20 committees
which do the preparatory work for plenary sessions, and a number of political groups that usually
meet in Brussels. The General Secretariat is based in Luxembourg and Brussels.
The Parliament takes part in the legislative work of the EU at three levels:
· Under the ‘cooperation’ procedure, introduced by the Single European Act in 1987, the
European Parliament can give its opinion on draft directives and regulations proposed by
the European Commission, which is asked to amend its proposals to take account of
Parliament’s position.
 · Since 1987, there has also been the ‘assent’ procedure, under which the European
Parliament must give its assent to international agreements negotiated by the Commission
and to any proposed enlargement of the European Union.
· The 1992 Treaty of Maastricht introduced the ‘co-decision’ procedure, which puts the
Parliament on an equal footing with the Council when legislating on a whole series of
important issues including the free movement of workers, the internal market, education,
research, the environment, trans-European networks, health, culture, consumer
protection, etc. The European Parliament has the power to throw out proposed legislation
in these fields if an absolute majority of members of Parliament vote against the
Council’s ‘common position’. The Treaty has made provision for a conciliation
procedure.

The European Parliament also shares, with the Council, equal responsibility for adopting the EU
budget. The Parliament can reject the proposed budget, and it has already done so on several
occasions. When this happens, the entire budget procedure has to be re-started. The European
Commission proposes the draft budget, which is then debated by the Council and the European
Parliament. Parliament has made full use of its budgetary powers to influence EU policy-making.
Last but not least, the European Parliament exercises democratic supervision over the Union. It
has the power to dismiss the Commission by adopting a motion of censure. This requires a two-
thirds majority. It also supervises the day-to-day management of EU policies by putting oral and
written questions to the Commission and the Council. Finally, the President of the European
Council reports to the Parliament on the decisions taken by the Council.

The Council of the European Union and the European Commission

The Council of the European Union (also known as the Council of Ministers) is the EU’s main
decision-making body. The EU member states take it in turns to hold the Council Presidency for
a six-month period. Every Council meeting is attended by one minister from each EU country.
Which ministers attend a meeting depends on which topic is on the agenda: foreign affairs,
agriculture, industry, transport, the environment, etc. Altogether there are nine different Council
configurations: General Affairs and External Relations; Economic and Financial Affairs
(ECOFIN); Justice and Home Affairs (JHA); Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer
Affairs; Competitiveness; Transport, Telecommunications and Energy; Agriculture and
Fisheries; Environment; Education, Youth and Culture
The Council has legislative power, which it shares with the European Parliament under the ‘co-
decision procedure’. In addition to this, the Council and the Parliament share equal responsibility
for adopting the EU budget. The Council also concludes international agreements that have been
negotiated by the Commission.
 According to the Treaties, the Council has to take its decisions either by a simple majority vote,
a ‘qualified majority’ vote or unanimously, depending on the subject to be decided. The Council
has to agree unanimously on important questions such as amending the Treaties, launching a new
common policy or allowing a new country to join the Union. In most other cases, qualified
majority voting is used. This means that a Council decision is adopted if a specified minimum
number of votes are cast in its favour. The number of votes allocated to each EU country roughly
reflects the size of its population.
Each minister in the Council is empowered to commit his or her government. In other words, the
minister’s signature is the signature of the whole government. Moreover, each minister in the
Council is answerable to his or her national parliament and to the citizens that parliament
represents. This ensures the democratic legitimacy of the Council’s decisions.
The European Council meets, in principle, four times a year. It is chaired by the president or
prime minister of the country holding the presidency of the Council of the European Union at the
time. The President of the European Commission attends as a full member. Under the Treaty of
Maastricht, the European Council officially became an initiator of the Union’s major policies and
was empowered to settle difficult issues on which ministers meeting in the Council of the
European Union fail to agree. The European Council also deals with pressing international issues
through the common foreign and security policy (CFSP), which is intended to allow the EU to
speak with one voice on diplomatic questions.
The European Commission is the third part of the institutional triangle that manages and runs the
European Union. Its members are appointed for a five-year term by agreement between the
member states, subject to approval by the European Parliament. The Commission is answerable
to the Parliament, and the entire Commission has to resign if the Parliament passes a motion of
censure against it. Since 2004, the Commission has been made up of one Commissioner from
each member state.
The Commission enjoys a substantial degree of independence in exercising its powers. Its job is
to uphold the common interest, which means that it must not take instructions from any national
EU government. As ‘Guardian of the Treaties’, it has to ensure that the regulations and directives
adopted by the Council and Parliament are being implemented in the member states. If they are
not, the Commission can take the offending party to the Court of Justice to oblige it to comply
with EU law. As the EU’s executive arm, the Commission implements the decisions taken by the
Council in areas such as the common agricultural policy. It has wide powers to manage the EU’s
common policies, such as research and technology, overseas aid, regional development, etc. It
also manages the budget for these policies. The Commission is assisted by a civil service made
up of 36 directorates-general (DGs) and services, which are mainly based in Brussels and
Luxembourg.

Employment Law
Employment Law Department is a specialist team. They advise on relevant law, employment
policy and procedure, and the formation of employment contracts. They assist in the
negotiation and settlement of disputes, and take or defend proceedings before an Employment
Tribunal or in a civil court.
Employment law usually involves a mixture of contractual provisions and legislation
regulating the relationship between employer and employee, and governing labour
relations between employers and trade unions, for example with regard to collective
agreements and collective bargaining about conditions of work. Developments in case law and
changes to legislation, for example from the implementation of European Community
directives, affect employers and employees alike. The practice of living and working in
different jurisdictions means that lawyers also have to refer to international conventions to
establish legal requirements.
The main statutory rights of employees include entitlement to:

 a national minimum wage;

 equal pay for like work, that is, broadly similar work;
 a written statement of employment particulars;
 an itemised pay statement;
 time off and holidays;
 statutory sick pay;
 a healthy and safe working environment;
 family and parental leave;
 protected rights on transfer of business to another employer (see the Transfer of
Undertakings [Protection of Employment] Regulations 2006);
 notice of termination of employment;
 not to have unlawful deductions from wages;
not to be discriminated against on grounds of sex, race, sexual orientation, disability, religion,
age, part-time or fixed term employment, or trade union membership.
It is usual practice for employers and employees to enter into a written agreement which sets
out their respective obligations and rights, and which constitutes a contract of employment,
either at the commencement of employment or shortly before. Clauses in the contract
generally deal with pay, deductions, hours of work, time off and leave, place of work, absence,
confidentiality, restrictions on the actions of an employee once employment is ended (known as
a restrictive covenant), giving notice, the grievance procedures in the event of job loss, and
variation of contract (meaning parties may agree to vary terms of the contract but terms cannot
be unilaterally varied, that is, by one party without agreement).
Employers are bound by the employment contract and statutory regulation as to how
they may deal with employees, particularly in relation to the termination of employment.
Failure to observe such obligations and regulations may give rise to a claim for
wrongful dismissal (where the employer is in breach of contract), unfair dismissal (where the
employer has not followed a fair dismissal and disciplinary procedure before terminating the
contract), or constructive dismissal (where an employee resigns because of the conduct of
his employer). Gross misconduct by the employee, for example theft from the employer, may
result in summary, that is, immediate, dismissal. In other circumstances, the employee may be
made redundant, for example if the employer has ceased to carry on business.