UNIT 1

INTRODUCTION TO LEGAL
ENGLISH AND EU ENGLISH
A. Legal English
I. What is Legal English?

In this chapter, we shall give a brief description of the distinctive features of Legal English, which can
be divided into two categories: those having to do with legal vocabulary, and those having to do with
syntax.

1. Legal vocabulary

Legal vocabulary may be classiied into three types:

a) technical terminology, i.e. words speciically belonging to legal contexts (“distraint”, “litigation”,
“indemnity”, “condonation”, “alimony”, “collusion”);
b) terms whose meaning in legal contexts difers from the one they possess in general language,
also called “subtechnical” or “semitechnical terms” (e.g. “action” meaning “suit” or “proceedings”,
“service” meaning “notiication”, “hand” meaning “signature”, etc.
c) general terms that are used in legal contexts, such as “theft”, “witness”, “judge”, etc.

Some of the technical words and/or expressions come from other languages, either in their original
form or adapted into English pronunciation, spelling or structure. These can be Latinisms, either in their
original form (prima facie, bona ide), adapted into English (“abscond”, “insolvent”) or direct translations
from Latin expressions (e.g. “law merchant”, from lex mercatoria), “last will” (ultima voluntas), “burden
of proof” (onus probandi). Also, there are words of French origin, some of which have been imported
directly, such as “fait accompli”, “force majeure”, etc., whereas others have been translated directly, such
as “under pain of” (sous peine de), or “plead guilty” (plaider coupable), and yet others have been adapted
(such as “salvage”, “towage”, “anchorage” or “demurrage”).

In general, the vocabulary of Legal English is characterized by a great degree of formality. This is partly
brought about by a high frequency of terms of Greek or Latin origin, but also by some speciic features,
namely:

a) archaisms and formal expressions: “whilst”, “showeth”, “witnesseth”, etc.;

b) complex prepositions: “by virtue of” (instead of “by”), “in the event of” (instead of “if”), “in
pursuance of” (instead of “under” or “according to”), “having regard to” (instead of “considering”)
etc.;
c) binomial or multinomial expressions, i.e. combinations of two or more elements with a similar
meaning, such as “act or omission”, “advice and consent”, “under or in accordance with”, “rest,
residue and remainder” or “give, devise and bequeath”;

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 d) compound prepositions and adverbs, such as “herein” (meaning “in this document” or
“mentioned here”), “hereby” (“by this document”) or “thereafter” (“after that, in the future”);
e) choice of words pertaining to a higher register, e.g “append” (instead of “attach”), “deem”
(“consider”), “expedite” (“hasten”) or “initiate/commence” (“begin, start”);
f ) nominalization, i.e. the use of nouns instead of verbs, sometimes through the conversion of
verbs into nouns (“to study – “a study”) or through derivation (by adding suix like “-ism”,
“-tion”, “-ure”, amongst others;
g) post-modiication, which is a result of nominalization, whereby a number of elements follow
the noun for greater accuracy or in order to avoid ambiguity, as in “on the payment to the
Owner of the total amount of any installments then remaining unpaid of the rent hereinbefore
reserved and agreed to be paid and the further sum of ten shillings (...)”.

2. Legal syntax

There are also some speciic features characterizing English syntax and sentence structure, which
include the following:

a) lexical repetition as a reference mechanism; instead of “it” or “this” or any other pronoun, legal
English prefers to use speciic words like “the aforesaid” or “the aforementioned”, or simply to
repeat words, e.g. “The SEC has reinforced the insider trading restrictions with promulgation of
Rule 14e-3 of the SEC, an independent provision prohibiting insider trading in connection with
tender ofers. Congress has further reinforced these trading restrictions by providing the SEC
with the power to seek a treble penalty under the Insider Trading Sanctions Act of 1984 (ITSA).
This legislation empowers the SEC to base enforcement actions on any recognized theory of
insider trading restriction”;
b) long and complex sentences, with multiple levels of subordination which are very seldom
found in general English: “It will be your duty, when the case is submitted to you, to determine
from the evidence admitted for your consideration, applying thereto the rules of law contained
in the instructions given by the court, whether or not the defendant is guilty of the ofense as
charged”);
c) frequent use of the passive, in order to emphasize the result of actions rather than the agents
(e.g. “The case was clear authority for the proposition that regard must be had to the particular
circumstances in which the rent payments were made”);
d) use of connectors like “whereas”, “provided that”, “where” (e.g. “Where the lack of supervision
or control by a natural person referred to in paragraph 1 has made possible the commission of
the criminal ofences, (…)”;
e) omission of the relative pronoun and the appropriate form of the verb “to be” (“all the rights
and remedies [which are] available to a secured party”);
f) a tendency to avoid the negative particle “not”, for instance, through the use of “never”, “unless”,
“except”, “fail to” or negative preixes, such as “un-”;
g) use of prepositions which are separated from their complements, as in “tracing and identiication
of proceeds from, or other property related to, crime” or “illicit manufacturing of and traicking
in irearms”;
h) use of the subjunctive, which is very seldom used in everyday language except for some ixed
expressions. In legal English, the subjunctive is used after verbs like “ask”, “advise”, “command”,
or “recommend” (e.g. “Even though someone may be eligible for an informal hearing, we will

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 recommend that he attend a formal hearing.”), after adjectives like “important”, “essential”,
“advisable” or “crucial” (e.g. “But even though he is no model of courtroom decorum, it is
crucial that he be granted the opportunity to present his positions to the court”), after some
nouns (“There is also the recommendation that the Council meet every week’” or “There is the
necessity that funding be found urgently”);
i) use of conditional sentences with inversion, as in “Each Party may provide that the only
prerequisite is that the conduct would have constituted a predicate ofence had it occurred
domestically” or “The Court approached the EU law claim on the basis that EU Treaty principles
would provide a basis for the claim as long as the contract was one which would have been
subject to one or other Directive had it not been a concession”.

B. EU Legal English
I. What is EU Legal English?

In this section, we give a brief description of the distinctive features of EU Legal English, by looking into
the vocabulary and syntax of the acquis communautaire.

1. Legal vocabulary

EU Legal vocabulary may be classiied into four types:

a) single and multi-word terms speciically belonging to EU legal contexts: (i.) e.g. ofence categories
included in the EAW (“laundering of the proceeds of crime”, “facilitation of unauthorised entry
and residence”, “forgery of means of payment”; “coniscation order”;
(ii.) terms peculiar to EU language: comitology” (“process by which EU law is adjusted, the locus
of which takes place “committees”);
b) semi-technical terms (e.g., “proceeds from crime” meaning “products of crime;” “predicate
ofence” meaning “ofence committed in the past”, “prescription” meaning “statute of
limitations”, “enforcement” meaning “programme of measures to implement the principle of
mutual recognition of criminal decisions”, etc.
c) legal terminology used in both UK and EU law English such as names of ofences (e.g., “arson”,
“corruption”, “counterfeiting”, “fraud”, “swindling”);
d) general-purpose single and multi-word terms used with a speciic meaning in EU legal contexts,
such as “instrumentalities” (“means, tool or agent” deined in EU law as “any property used or
intended to be used, in any manner, wholly or in part, to commit a criminal ofence”), “mutual
legal assistance” used in EU law to mean “working in concerted fashion to reduce crime”), etc.

EU legal English also includes technical words and/or expressions from other languages. These can be
direct borrowings from their original form and meaning or adaptations into EU law English pronunciation,
spelling or structure. Examples of the former include: (i.) Latin-based terms in their original form (ne bis
in idem “right not to be punished twice”; locus regit actum “execution ruled by the law of the requesting
country”; pacta sunt servanda “agreements must be kept”, culpa in contrahendo “parties must act in good
faith during preliminary contract negotiations”, ex oicio-- “for reason of position or oice”; (ii.) integrated
into English from other languages. From French: “indictment”, “sentence”, “trespass”, etc. From Old Norse:
“ombudsman,” etc.; (iii.) borrowed directly from French: “raison d’être”, ”acquis communautaire”, etc.

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For the most part, the vocabulary of EU law English, as opposed to Legal English, is characterized by a
slightly reduced degree of formality. This is in part due to the restricted use of borrowings from Latin
and the mindful choice of words of those who, in a multi-cultural, multi-lingual context such as the
EU, have the remit of drafting and translating legislative products (primary law: treaties; secondary
law: recommendations, decisions, directives) from 3 working languages (English, French, German) into
20 EU ‘oicial’ languages, 5 ‘semi-oicial’ languages (Catalan, Galician, Basque, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh),
and, where necessary, into 7 ‘main EU “immigrant” languages(s) (Russian, Berber, Arabic, Turkish, Urdu,
Chinese, Hindustani).

As a discipline-based technical language, EU legal English vocabulary shares linguistic conventions of

Legal English, often with its own special choice of vocabulary, such as:

a) formal, age-worn expressions that have resisted change: “whereas” (used to introduce the
“Preamble” section in framework decisions, directives and regulations), “by way of derogation
from”, “subject to the provisions of”, “where necessary and in so far as possible,” etc.; present
participles (Verb + -ing) used in recitals in the introductory section of EU legal documents:
“having regard to”, “expressing”, “considering”, “recognizing”, etc.;
b) formulaic conventions: “nothing in this Title shall preclude”, “the competent administrative
authorities within the meaning of”, “no reservations may be entered in respect of this
Convention”, etc.;
c) multiword prepositional phrases: “pursuant to” (“under”), “in consideration of” (“considering”),
“without prejudice to” (“without changing”), “in accordance with” (“according to”), “with the
purpose of” (“to + ininitive”; “for + gerund” as in “to convey” or “for conveying”), etc.;
d) higher register words, e.g. “alien” (instead of “foreign”), “convene” (“gather”), “surrender” (“turn
in”). “commence” (“start”), “removal” (of liberty) (“deprivation”), “jurisdiction” (“competence”),
“foster” (“promote”), etc.;
e) nominalization, i.e. the process of word formation by conversion from verb to noun: “to table”,
“a table”; or by derivation (e.g. adding a suix such as “-ion” to a verb (“to access”, “accession”),
“-ure” (“to proceed”, “procedure”), “-ance”, (“to order”, “ordinance“), etc.

2. Legal syntax

Some speciic features characterizing EU legal English syntax and sentence structure, are:

a) complex sentences, with multiple levels of subordination and embedding not often found in
ordinary English. Here is a single 95-word sentence EU article: “Member States shall ensure
that when a suspected or accused person has been subject to questioning or hearings by an
investigative or judicial authority with the assistance of an interpreter pursuant to Article 2,
when an oral translation or oral summary of essential documents has been provided in the
presence of such an authority pursuant to Article 3(7), or when a person has waived the right to
translation pursuant to Article 3(8), it will be noted that these events have occurred, using the
recording procedure in accordance with the law of the Member State concerned.”);
b) use of the passive to highlight the result of an action rather than the agent(s) (e.g. “Pursuant
to paragraph 4.f of this article, it is considered that the decision has not been rendered in
absentia.”);.

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 c) use of connectives to link sentences: “whilst”, “where”, “when”, “in consideration of”, “pursuant to”,
“within the meaning of”, “by virtue of”, “for the purposes of” (e.g. “For the purposes of applying
paragraph 1.b of this article, any Party shall […] have competence to institute coniscation
proceedings under its own law.”);
d) use of collective noun + singular or plural verb: singular if the purpose is to highlight the entity:
“The Commission is considering the proposal”; plural if the purpose is to highlight individuals
within it: “The SIS were unable to identify the source.”
e) adverbs: EU language uses archaisms from the English language such as adverbs (here, there) +
preposition (“after”, “by”, “in”, “of”, “to”, “with”) combinations to form complex closed compound
adverbs used mostly in formal EU texts: “hereafter” (“after/according to this “text”), “hereby”
(“by this means”), “herein” (“in this text”), hereto (“to this text”), “herewith” (“enclosed in this
text”); “thereafter” (“after/according to that text”), “thereby” (“in relation to that text”), “therein”
(“in that text”), “thereof” (“of that text”), etc. Here- adverbs mostly refer to “the text at hand”,
whilst there- adverbs make reference to “that text” or “the past text.”
f) verb tenses. Present simple, present perfect, present continuous, past simple. The present
simple is used for events occurring “now”, “regularly”: “The team of experts meets twice a year to
report on work in progress”. The present perfect is used to express events occurring “before and
leading up to the present”: “The team has organized an international police operation to ight
against money laundering”. The present continuous is used to express an event happening “in
this moment”: “Eurojust teams are discussing the operation in the 2nd loor conference room”;
or, to report on “future, planned events”: “Eurojust is having a second meeting to evaluate the
proposal next week”. If the action is inished, the past simple is used: “Eurojust met to discuss
the plan the day before yesterday.”
g) verbs of enacting. These are of two types: (i.) verbs used in EU primary and secondary legislation
to denote “obligation” or “command” (e.g., auxiliary verb shall for “positive command”; shall not
for “negative command”). Examples: positive command with “shall”: “Each Party shall adopt
such legislative and other measures as may be necessary to enable it to identify and trace
property which is liable to coniscation“; negative command with “shall not”: ”A Party shall not
decline to act under the provisions of this article on grounds of bank secrecy“; (ii.) verbs used
for deining or creating/developing: ”For the purposes of this Convention: “proceeds” means
any economic advantage from criminal ofences“; ”The Treaty of Lisbon sets up a European
External Action Service (EEAS).”
h) auxiliary/main verb separation. Frequent in legal English documents, but used with reserve
in EU and international legal instruments with a wide, multicultural, multilingual readership:
“Each Party may, at the time of signature or when depositing its instrument of ratiication,
acceptance, approval or accession, by a declaration addressed to the Secretary General
of the Council of Europe, declare that paragraph 2 of this article applies only subject to its
constitutional principles and the basic concepts of its legal system.”

Features such as the omission of the relative pronoun and the appropriate form of the verb “to be” (Legal
English, §AI,2e above), the tendency to avoid the negative particle “not” (§AI,2f) as well as the use of
prepositions separated from their complements (§AI,2g) are as in Legal English.

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C. EXERCISES
I. Complete the table below with related forms of the words given.
Verb Noun – event/action Noun – person
appeal
hear
try
ofend
defend

Now ill in the gaps with words from the table above.

1) The ............... was sentenced to life imprisonment.

2) The …………… courts can uphold or reverse decisions of lower courts.

3) A European Arrest Warrant may be issued for …………… punishable by imprisonment or a

detention order for a maximum period of at least 12 months.

4) The …………… claimed that the police had forced him to sign the statement.

5) The …………… of the suspect will help the investigators in solving the case.

6) The ofender was extradited and …………… in the requesting Member State.

II. Match the words with the corresponding deinitions. The irst one has been
provided for you.

arson, assassination, assault, blackmail, bribe, burglary, embezzlement, espionage,

extortion, forgery, libel, manslaughter, murder, obscenity, perjury, piracy,
robbery, slander, smuggling, theft, unlawful assembly

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 1 theft The act of taking away property that belongs to another person
Killing a human being without intention, premeditation or malice or in
2
mitigating circumstances.
The act of killing a public igure usually by sudden or secret attack for political
3
or religious reasons.
An act or utterance that is ofensive according to current moral or decency
4
standards.
5 Meeting in secret in order to organize unlawful activities.
Making, adapting or imitating objects, documents, etc. with the intent of
6
deceiving another person(s) into believing that the forged object is genuine.
7 The crime of unlawfully killing another person with malicious intent.
8 To willfully set ire to the property of a person or a company.
A defamatory statement against a person by written or representational
9
means.
The act of entering a dwelling or other inhabited building where people live or
10
work with the express intention of stealing something.
To get money from someone by threatening to make public facts about a
11
person’s private life that the person does not wish made public.
Causing or threatening to cause immediate physical harm or contact by
12 putting a person in danger or making the person believe in such harm or
contact.
The act of defaming a person by means of oral statements that damage that
13
person’s character or reputation.
The act of unlawfully taking property that belongs to another person by using
14
violence or intimidating threats.
15 Making a false statement while under oath.
16 The use or reproduction of another person’s copyrighted or patented material
such as ilm or music.
17 To dishonestly withhold or make use of money or assets which you are looking
after for someone else usually in a premeditated fashion.
To obtain money, services or property from a person or company by means of
18
threats or intimidation.
19 The act of obtaining secret or conidential information by unlawful means.
The act of transporting goods or persons in and out of a country, prison or
20
building by violating national or international laws and regulations.
The act of ofering money or other valuable object to someone to get
21
something in return that will better a personal position or situation.

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III. Match the words with the corresponding deinitions. The irst one has been
provided for you. Two words are used twice. 1

accused, acquitted, barristers, Crown Court, defence, dock, evidence, ine, guilty (x2),
imprisonment, judge (x2), Jury, Justice of the Peace, Magistrates’ Court, oath, prosecution,
put on probation, sentence, testimony, trial, verdict, witness box, witnesses

There are two main courts of law in Britain – the (1) ____________________ for minor ofences, such
as speeding, shoplifting, etc. and the (2) ___________________ for more serious ofences such as fraud
and murder. The magistrate or (3) ____________________ who tries cases in the lower court does not
have special education or training in law and does not get a salary. Therefore, the job is voluntary and
part-time.

At a (4) ___________________ at a Crown Court, the (5) _________________ or defendant stands in

the (6) ______________________ while lawyers question (7) ___________________ who have to say
what they have seen or know and who stand in the (8) _______________. They have to swear an (9)
______________ to ‘tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.’ What they say is known as
their (10) ______________.

There are usually two lawyers or (11) __________________ in the courtroom. One is known as Counsel
for the (12) _________________, who speaks for the defendant, and the other as Counsel for the (13)
_______________. This person has to try to prove that the person accused of the crime really committed
it.

The (14) ___________________ sits in a large seat facing the defendant and wears a special gown
and wig. He or she does not decide whether an accused person is guilty or not. This is left to the (15)
________________________ , made up of twelve members of the public, to decide. During the trial they
sit in silence, listening carefully to all the (16) ____________________. Then, they are locked away until
they can decide whether the person is (17) _____________________ or not (18) ________________.
This decision is called the (19) ______________.

The (20) _____________________ now decides the punishment or (21) ___________ as it is called. If
the person is innocent, he or she is (22) ___________________, which means that he or she is released
immediately and is free to go home. If the person is guilty and the crime is serious, he or she could be
given several years’ (23) _____________________. However, if it a irst ofence, the person might be
given a (24) ____________________ instead, for example £1,000, or (25) ________________.

1
Source: Watcyn-Jones, P. (1995). Travel vocabulary 3, Middlesex, UK: Penguin.

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 IV. Practising Latin terms. Give the plain English equivalent for each of the following
Latin expressions.

actus reus ex parte (ex p.) per se

ad hoc habeas corpus prima facie

aidavit id est (i.e.) pro rata

bona ide in camera quasi

caveat in curia sub judice

de facto in situ ultra vires

de jure inter alia videlicet

et cetera (etc ipso facto

exempli gratia (e.g.) per pro

Now match the sentences containing Latin words with the sentences having similar
meaning.

a. They acted in a way which was beyond their

legitimate powers.

b. An application for an injunction was made to

1) There is a prima facie case to answer. the court by one party and no notice was given
to the other party.
2) Since he thought he was, wrongly held by the
police, he issued a writ of habeas corpus. c. The case was heard in private.
3) They have entered a caveat. d. They have warned us they have no interest in
4) His action was ultra vires. the case, so they will need notice before we take
any further steps.
5) The press cannot report details of the case
because it is sub judice. e. A committee was set up for this particular
6) An ex parte application was lodged at the purpose.
court. f. The action should proceed because one side
7) The court sat in camera. has shown there seems to be suicient evidence.

8) An ad hoc committee was formed. g. The case cannot be mentioned in the media,
since it is likely to prejudice court proceedings.

h. He exercised his legal right to recourse against

unlawful detention.

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