Significance of Legal English: History, Impact, Importance, and Benefits

“The law is a tool, and like any tool, it is only as effective as the person who uses it.” – Thurgood Marshall

Do you know according to the Ethnologue there are 7,164 living languages worldwide? Out of which one of the most popular and widely spoken languages is English. The English language is spoken in 146 countries, far more than even Mandarin Chinese, the largest language in the world based on first-language (native) speakers.

This number decreases every month and only 23 languages can make up half of the world’s population. But there is one language that might not vanish for centuries like any other language, and that is Legal English. Let us now look at what Legal English is and its significance in the law field.

“This precision in legal language is essential for maintaining fairness and consistency in the legal system. Unlike everyday language, which can be flexible and open to interpretation, legal language must be exact to ensure that laws are applied uniformly and justly. This helps prevent misunderstandings and disputes, making the legal process more transparent and accessible to everyone.” - Priya Jain, the Founder of Finology Legal, a legal ed-tech.

Also Read: How important is English for a career in law?

Wondering What is Legal English?

Legal English is also known as “legalese” a specialised branch of the English language used by legal professionals such as Lawyers, Judges, Legislative Drafters, Attorneys and others. Just as other professions have their specific tools or software, lawyers have a unique tool called Legal English which is used for both writing and speaking.

Peter Meijes Tiersma, professor at Loyola University Law School suggests, “legal language has been called an argot, a dialect, a register, a style and even a separate language. In fact, it is best described with the relatively new term sublanguage, a sublanguage that has its own specialised grammar, a limited subject matter, contains lexical, syntactic and semantic restrictions and allows deviant rules of grammar that are not acceptable in the standard language. However we describe it, legal language is a complex collection of linguistic habits that have developed over many centuries and that jurists have learned to use quite strategically”.

If you are an aspiring or practising lawyer or even a law student, you can understand better than anyone. Legal English has its own terminology, structure, grammar, punctuation, and other conventions. It plays an important role in effective communication and comprehension within the legal field. Therefore having a proper understanding of Legal English is important.

Legal English Vs Regular English

Legal English is used in legal contexts and documents. It is characterised by complex sentence structures, specific terminology, and a formal tone to maintain accuracy and avoid misunderstandings. On the other hand, Regular English is used in everyday communication, focusing on simplicity and clarity. It uses common vocabulary and flexible sentences, making it widely understandable and suitable for various situations.

“This precision in legal language is essential for maintaining fairness and consistency in the legal system. Unlike everyday language, which can be flexible and open to interpretation, legal language must be exact to ensure that laws are applied uniformly and justly. This helps prevent misunderstandings and disputes, making the legal process more transparent and accessible to everyone”, describes Priya Jain.

For whom is it useful?

Lawyers and Legal Professionals, Law Students and Academics, Business Professionals, Government Officials, Translators and Interpreters, Individuals Involved in Legal Proceedings, and Non-native English Speakers in Legal Contexts.

Also Read: How to Become a Lawyer

History of Legal English

Legal English has traditionally been the language of lawyers from English-speaking countries like America, England, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Kenya, and South Africa due to colonial forces early on the trends of globalisation, privatisation and liberalisation, and import and export-international business. Today, however, it is the language of the world according to Jiwaji University.

Why is legal language sometimes difficult to understand?

Legal language is difficult for several reasons such as complex terminology, long and complex sentences, formal structure, precision and specificity, lack of context, interpretation and application.

Why is legal English Important?

Now that we know what Legal English is, let us now look at why Legal English is important. The first and foremost reason to know Legal English is because it is the language of the court and law professionals speak and write in Legal English. If there is any difference, change or use of one wrong word changes the entire meaning of a legal document. Below are the following reasons why you should consider learning Legal English.

• Knowledge of legal English is essential for effective communication with clients and helps to prevent miscommunication and misunderstandings while working for courts and pleadings.
• Proficiency in legal English opens up opportunities to attend international law-related conferences.
• Provides more clarity and can convey legal concepts accurately.
• Lawyers can interpret statutes, navigate legal precedents, and extract relevant information from legal documents easily.
• Legal English helps to write and understand law-related documents such as contracts, licences, indictments or subpoenas, pleadings, judgments, Acts of Parliament, case reports and legal correspondence.
• Legal language also helps the lawyers to guide and advise the clients, defend them in court or question witnesses.
• To maintain the integrity of the legal system by ensuring uniformity and consistency and providing a formal tone to the legal documents.
• The need for the teaching of legal language and grasping the essence of the words.
• Proficiency in legal language is a quintessential element for careers in law.

Impact of Legal English

Legal language is crucial for creating laws, contracts, court rulings, and other legal documents. It is not only important for writing but also for speaking and court proceedings. Therefore, it must be used with clarity, accuracy, and the correct legal terms.

Legal language is essential for accuracy, but its complexity can create barriers to accessing justice for some individuals. To balance clarity and complexity is an ongoing challenge in the legal profession. In this scenario, individuals need to seek guidance from legal professionals to navigate the complexities of the law effectively.

Impact of Legal Language on Interpretation of Laws and Contracts

“The tradition of drafting laws in India has remained largely inaccessible, originating from colonial governance which did not prioritise making law understandable to the common person. As a result, legal language continues to be complex, intimidating the common man to rely on legal professionals for even basic legal errands. Despite 75 years of independence, this colonial-style drafting exists, keeping the general population distant from meaningful legal engagement.

The role of policy makers in India needs reforms. They should move away from only technical and traditional methods towards a more inclusive approach that focuses on clear communication of legal texts. This need for clarity is joined by the fact that most people accessing the legal system have only basic education and lack training in understanding legal jargon. Moreover, while laws are translated into local languages, the supporting materials often remain available only in English, which is not the primary language for the majority”, explains Priya Jain.

One change of word can change the entire meaning of the legal term in the law field such as incorrect grammar can lead to misunderstandings and can change the entire meaning. For example, a company in Maine, US recently learned how a forgotten comma could lead to an undesired outcome in a lawsuit and cost a significant amount of money, according to Language Connections.

Example of a legal term that is often misunderstood or misinterpreted

“The most common example in this case can be “Murder.” You will see this word thrown around usually in courtroom dramas but the actual concept is much more complicated. Many times when the word “Murder” is used it is actually “culpable homicide” but because of the similarity between them, we see a lot of confusion. This was recently seen during the Pune Porche incident when the crime was actually of “Culpable Homicide not amounting to murder” which clearly states that it was not murder but many media houses misquoted the incident as “murder”. The same can be seen in some bollywood movies as well like Drishyam, Shootout at Wadala and others,” describes Priya Jain.

What are its Benefits?

Although Legal English is complex to read, write or understand there are a lot of benefits available for it. Proficiency in Legal English will enhance your career and professional development. It makes you unique in the legal market from other competitors and displays your potential to deliver top-notch legal services to diverse clients.

Expertise in English Language will improve your research, negotiation, mediation and analytical thinking skills. Not only that it will also improve and build your confidence to compel arguments and draft airtight contracts containing legal terms and jargon. It will open doors for academic institutions and research opportunities in English-speaking countries resulting in expanded legal knowledge and expertise internationally.

“Understanding the nuances of legal language in different jurisdictions is vital for legal professionals to simplify legal language and improve access to justice. Clear and simple language helps people understand their rights and legal processes better, making the legal system more accessible and fair for everyone,” elaborates Priya Jain.

How can you Improve your Legal English?

Now that you know the history, and significance of Legal English, and its benefits, you must be curious to know how to improve your Legal English. You can improve it by just following these things.

To improve your Legal Language, you can actively read legal texts and documents. Listen to legal podcasts, build your legal vocabulary, and network with peers and colleagues. You can also pursue Legal English certification courses, and practice writing legal documents in English and you can also find a professional language instructor and take special classes.

You can also participate in relevant classroom activities, join a legal communication skills programme and use audiobooks to develop listening and speaking skills. Apart from that, invest your time in reading legal news in English, attend webinars and conferences, and practice speaking out loud about legal terms. Practising in every possible way can make you an expert in Legal Language.

Conclusion

We understood that Legal English has its own specialised grammar, unique subject matter, and syntactic and semantic restrictions. The law language is difficult to understand by a common man because it is often different from the ordinary language.

Therefore lack of legal knowledge may create difficulties for law professionals while working in the field. However English legal language serves as a communication tool in everyday law-related situations despite its complexity.

“We are seeing new laws coming in and a significant shift specifically in the Criminal Laws. They are some of the oldest laws we have in our country and there is a clear “Decolonisation” trend to say the least. Another point to note is that judgement writing, which is the foundational representation of Legal language, has evolved in the past years. Any recent judgement is so well written and drafted that it becomes convenient to navigate and understand in relevance to 10-15-year-old judgements,” says Priya Jain.