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8/21/23, 7:33 PM Why only lawyers can understand Legal Language ?
- Star of Mysore
Why only lawyers can

understand Legal Language ?
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8/21/23, 7:33 PM Why only lawyers can understand Legal Language ? - Star of Mysore
By Susheela Srinivasan and Dr. B. Shakira Jabeen
English in legal documents in India is so unique that it goes by special nomenclatures

— legal parlance, legal English, legalese, etc. This form of language is used in the
Courts, legal documents, rules, bye-laws, judgments, Bills, Acts and amendments. A
lawyer has to read and interpret it for layman. At what point does the language of law
lose contact with common speech? What is it that makes the language of law difficult
to comprehend?
Answers to these questions point at certain linguistic aspects used in legal writings.
Vocabulary, syntax and semantics make the language of law different. The vocabulary
used in legal writings is heavily borrowed from Latin and French languages as Latin
was the language of administration and Law in England and French was the Court
language.
British educated codifiers in India who drafted the statutes and legal forms borrowed
the already existing terminology. Archaism, use of loan words, jargon and use of usual
words with unusual meaning and doublets and triplets are the vocabulary features
that make comprehension of legal documents difficult. Complicated sentence
structures make the language of law quaint.
Archaism is use of outdated words. Modern English has done away with words from ▾
Old and Middle English which continue to be used in Theology and Law. Use of such
words adds to the difficulty in understanding a piece of writing. Words like
heretofore, hereinafter, wherein, aforesaid and notwithstanding are some of the

examples of archaic expressions which are part of legal writing.
Loan words are words borrowed from other languages. The need for these arose as
English and French languages were considered vulgar and deficient in logical
expressions. Latin was the language of Law in England till 1066. Thereafter a variety
of Latin known as ‘Low Latin’ containing Latinised English and French was used in
courts till the Fourteenth Century. This explains the occurrence of Latin and French
words in Indian legal documents written in English. A few of such Latin words are —
‘a priori’ meaning previous contentions, ‘prima facie’ meaning a case at first sight’,
‘habeas corpus’ meaning a writ to obtain the release of someone unlawfully detained,
etc. Words borrowed from French have been so assimilated into legal parlance that
they appear to be English like felony, larceny, covenant, battery, etc.
Jargon is words which are used exclusively in a special area. These are words
particular to a subject. A word in general can have more than one meaning. But in
law these jargons have only one meaning that cannot be disputed. For example, the
jargon ‘citation’ means ‘quoting a decided case’, ‘negotiable instrument’ means ‘all
rights that can be transferred simply by delivery’ such as cheques. These words have
come to be recognised as part of legal register.
READ ALSO Language Imposition & Linguistic Tolerance
Words with unusual meaning are familiar words, used in legal expression with
unfamiliar meanings. The general meaning of these words is different from its legal
meaning. The word ‘access’ means ‘a right granted to a parent to visit his/her child’.
Similarly, ‘conveyance’ means ‘a document transferring a free hold interest in land
after sale’, ‘hearing in camera’ means ‘hearing a case in private’, ‘keeping a disorderly
house’ means ‘the offence of operating a brothel’ and ‘sleeping partner’ is ‘a partner
who assumes no responsibility for running a business’.
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Doublets and triplets are overuse of synonyms. This feature is added to make things
doubly sure of what it means. ‘Hired, engaged and employed’, ‘destroy, damage and
defile’, ‘signed, sealed and delivered’ are some of the examples of the use of multiple
synonyms for emphasis. Lawyers defend the use of such synonyms on the ground that
they are motivated by the need to be precise. However, critics attribute this to ancient
legal practitioners who were paid by the length of the documents.
These vocabulary features by themselves don’t make a piece of writing difficult to

comprehend. The syntax of legal writings is mind-bogglingly complex. This
complexity of syntax is a unique feature of legal documents. There is no end to the
number of embedded clauses and modifiers in the sentence.
However, the never-ending length of the sentence is not the only cause of complexity
of legal sentence structure. There were multiple efforts to reduce this complexity of
syntax. Use of punctuation marks was one such effort. When law was written or
codified in Latin in England, the Greek way of indicating pauses with punctuation
marks was not followed.
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Later when punctuations were introduced, they were not assigned meaning and they
were not taken into account for interpretation. Whenever a dispute in meaning based ▾
on a punctuation mark was taken to court, it was ruled that punctuation could not be
assigned meaning. However, this recent trend hasn’t eliminated the presence of very
long sentences. The unusual structure with multiple modifiers in unexpected

positions confuses the reader.
The language of law seems tedious and verbose. A reader is compelled to consult a
legal expert to recover meaning from the syntactic labyrinth. There is a need to make
legal language comprehensible to ordinary people. Paraphrased and translated
versions which aid comprehension can help people understand the documents though
these cannot be used for legal interpretation in a court of law.
Technically, all translations of legal documents will not be considered authoritative

texts. There are multiple examples where translation of legal documents poses
linguistic hurdles. Translation task can sometimes be baffling. Instead of one single
language, if we use three or four languages that a group of friends know and put
together the various words, it becomes an interesting task. Probably that’s how legal
use of English developed.
[The writers are English Language Teaching (ELT) practitioners and alumnus of
English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU), Hyderabad]
This post was published on January 13, 2020 6:08 pm

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8/21/23, 7:33 PM Why only lawyers can understand Legal Language ?

Why only lawyers can

By Susheela Srinivasan and Dr. B. Shakira Jabeen

English in legal documents in India is so unique that it goes by special nomenclatures

heretofore, hereinafter, wherein, aforesaid and notwithstanding are some of the

READ ALSO Language Imposition & Linguistic Tolerance

It's never been faster to get a

These vocabulary features by themselves don’t make a piece of writing difficult to

READ ALSO The 5 Steps Toward Settling Personal Injury Lawsuit

long sentences. The unusual structure with multiple modifiers in unexpected

Technically, all translations of legal documents will not be considered authoritative

This post was published on January 13, 2020 6:08 pm

You May Like Sponsored Links by Taboola

The Average IQ in India is 81. Check if your IQ is higher

Goa: Flight + Hotel at Affordable Prices

Kanniyakumari: Reduce Fat With Laser Liposuction (See Total Prices)

© Star of Mysore | View Non-AMP Version

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