Scribd
Upload
58 views

Legal Language and Legal Writing Class II

Legal language is the technical language used by legal professionals. It has developed over centuries, with influences from Latin, French, and English. Legal language contains unusual terminology, structures, and punctuation compared to everyday language. It plays a pivotal role in lawmaking, legal proceedings, and citizens' understanding of the law.

Uploaded by

saharshreddy
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
58 views

Legal Language and Legal Writing Class II

Legal language is the technical language used by legal professionals. It has developed over centuries, with influences from Latin, French, and English. Legal language contains unusual terminology, structures, and punctuation compared to everyday language. It plays a pivotal role in lawmaking, legal proceedings, and citizens' understanding of the law.

Uploaded by

saharshreddy
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 14

Legal Language and Legal Writing

Introduction
• Law plays different roles in the lives of everyone. A single word cannot define law. There
cannot be a word which can equate law.
• One can draw analogy to understand law. Law is like a temple which is designed so that
men and women can live in his or her palace of peace.
• Law is love, which is inarticulate in nature. Both have the power to regulate human
emotions. Law is as complex as love.
• An analogy can be drawn between law and sea. Both law and sea are vast and as a drop
adds to the quantity of water in the ocean, in the same way every judgement adds itself to
many precedents. Also, there is no life without water, there is no life without law.
• Law is not a mistress, law is a spouse. It stays with you, wherever you go.
• Law is an invisible force that controls every human being. Law connects
us like Life and Water (LAW).
• All these statements gives the idea that law is universal
• According to PLATO, “Human language is a result of divine gift.”
Language is a powerful medium of symbols, meanings, communication
and expressions.
• Though, language is a medium of law but awareness regarding language is
essential in the field of law.
• Law is made by means of language and controlled by logic. So, language
plays a pivotal role in the lives of lawyers
Meaning:
It notes that legal language is a specific language used by legal
professionals that has technical meanings. It outlines five dimensions
of communication in the legal field, including communications
between lawmakers and citizens, judges and lawyers, and ordinary
citizens.
English is the predominant international language and it has a
significant role in the development of the legal language. Legal
English is the style of English used by lawyers and other legal
professionals in the course of their work. Legal language contains a
number of unusual features which are related to terminology,
linguistic structure, punctuation etc.
BACKGROUND OF LEGAL LANGUAGE

• The development of legal English is closely connected with the history of Great Britain.
• For several centuries English remained the spoken language of the majority of the
population, while almost all writing was done in French or Latin.
• During that period, legal English was influenced by Latin and French. Following the
Norman invasion of England in 1066, Anglo Norman France became the official language
of England. For the period of nearly 300 years, it was the language of legal proceedings.
• As a result many words used in modern legal English are derived from Anglo Norman,
such words are property, chattel ,estate ,lease etc.
MEANING AND SCOPE OF LEGAL
LANGUAGE

• Legal language means the language which is being used by a person engaged in the
legal profession. Law is a technical subject and it has its specific language and
terminology (शब्दावली).
• The interpretation (व्याख्या) of law is carried out by means of a specific language
called legal language.
• The scope and extent of legal language is very much wide, because the legal
language deals with the common man.
• There is a general conception (धारणा) regarding the legal language that a common
man cannot understand the legal language as it is a technical subject.
• Only the legal experts are able to understand the technicality of legal language
because they possess the skill to understand it.
• Different types of people come within the ambit of the legal language.
However, some of the people are compulsorily legal experts and some of
the people are not compulsorily legal experts in the absence of
knowledge of law.
• In modern society there are two categories of people –
• i) Those who are affected by law and;
• ii) Those who deal with law (legal experts).
• Legal language is that language which is being used by the people (lawyers and other
legal professionals) engaged in legal profession.
• The constitutional language is a part of legal language. In fact, the
constitutional language is the foundation of legal language by which law
obtains statutory status.
• Legal language is different from everyday language. The differences are most
obvious at the semantic level of all the modes of persuasion furnished by the
spoken work.
• There are three kinds –
• 1. The first depends upon the personal character of the speaker.
• 2. The second on putting the audience into a certain frame of mind, and
• 3. The third on the proof or apparent proof provided by the words of the
speech itself and this can be achieved by
• (a) reasoning logically
• (b) understanding human character and goodness in their various forms, and
• (c) understanding the liberty of the mind.
The object
• The object of every sincere speech after all, is not to arouse the passions or flatter
the senses, but to convince the hearers of the truth.
• As a lawyer one must have a distinctive vocabulary which uses the words from
outside the general language and words which are part of the general language, but
which have radically different meaning in legal and general usage.
• The significant of language for law lies infect that it is not merely a medium of
communication but also a medium of law or furthermore or is not merely only
medium, to is the law.
CHARACTERISTICS OF LEGAL
LANGUAGE

• Legal language is sometimes difficult to understand because of the usage of


a large number of difficult words and phrases.

• Legal Language employs a great deal of technical terminology which is


unfamiliar to the layman and most of these terms are derived from French
and Latin.
• Sentences often have peculiar (unique) structures. The influence of French
grammatical structures is a contributory reason for this factor.
• Punctuation is used sufficiently particularly in consequences and deeds. In
modern legal drafting punctuation is used to clarify the meaning of the
words.
• Foreign phrases are sometimes used instead of English phrases. such as Inter
alia is used instead of among others.
• Older words like here of, thereof, whereof are used in legal English primarily
to avoid repeating names or phrases. like the parties here too.
• Modifiers such as the same, the said, the aforementioned etc. are very
frequently used as adjectives to determine the noun.
• For example – the said Mr. A.
• Legal English contains some words such as employer and employee, lesser
and lessee in which the opposite nature of the relationship is indicated by the
use of alternative endings, such as -er, -or, -ee.

You might also like