The Lexicon of Legal Professions - Confusing eh?

By Edward Gwynne

 

Legal language can be  very confusing  for someone who hasn't had any education in the field of law. Even someone with an advanced knowledge of English language will  be unable to de-code what certain legislations mean. This is how lawyers and other legal professionals earn their money. Lawyers are paid to exploit the laws they research into for a client. This is to find a loophole. A loophole is an ambiguity or inadequacy in a certain system. Loopholes are used to avoid the intent of the law, whether directly stated or vaguely implied. An example of a loophole is when in the mid 1990s, the company Walmart wanted to open a store, the county in which they wanted to open it had a law stating that no shop could be bigger than 75,000 square feet. Therefore, Walmart planned to build two stores next to each other. They soon withdrew that plan, as it caused a lot of controversy. Loopholes have resulted in such major problems that the government has even employed people in specific jobs to prevent this from happening, such as Drafters, who compose more than one draft of a Bill - a pre-confirmed law - to make sure the law means what is says.

 

Laws aim to prevent this by using many factors. Laws are written with specialist lexis, directly related to the field of legal language. Lexis that is hard for a non-law student to understand. Such as Acquittal, and Affirmation. Also, normal English words are used, but the meaning of them is changed significantly, causing greater confusion to a normal citizen with no training. An example of this would be 'consideration'. In English language, consideration means to carefully give something thought, whereas in Legal language it means to give something of value in exchange for something else.

 

Legal language has changed through the centuries, with legal professions beginning by speaking in Latin. By the 13th century everything had changed to Old French. Eventually English was created. With the choice of three languages, the legal professions chose to use all three, hence why the use of Latinate and Old French lexis is common in legal language. Some mixtures of the words are still used in Modern English, especially common in doublets. Such as 'Fit and proper', a mixture of Old French and English, and also 'Will and testament', combining English and Latin. This in time resulted in normal Englishmen not being able to understand legislations and courtroom language.

 

Before I began studying law, I never appreciated the sheer amount of knowledge that was required to cover only a small topic of law. In order to be successful in what you do you need to know your area inside and out. No wonder why having a legal career is such a highly esteemed path.