What makes legal English different: layers, register and clear writing

A lawyer working in English uses three layers of the language at once. Many learners study only the third and are surprised when they are not understood.

The technical layer is only a small part of what you need. A lawyer who knows “estoppel” but cannot politely ask a client to repeat a number, or cannot write a clear email asking for a document, is not yet comfortable in English. The three layers work together, and this course trains all of them.

Many odd features of legal English have a simple explanation: history. After 1066, the rulers and courts of England used Norman French, and for centuries legal records were written in French and Latin, while ordinary people spoke English. Lawyers ended up with three vocabularies. This is why English law still has several words for one idea.

A second habit is the word pair (or triplet): two or three words, often from different origins, that mean nearly the same thing. They survive in old documents and some modern ones.

• null and void (the second word, from French, was added to the first, from Latin)
• terms and conditions, cease and desist, fit and proper, last will and testament
• give, devise and bequeath, save and except, goods and chattels

Why did these pairs begin? One reason was to make sure that readers who knew only French, or only English, understood. Another was caution: more words seemed safer. Today, most pairs add nothing, and some cause trouble because readers wonder whether the two words are meant to mean different things.

Register means the level of formality of your language. English has many levels, and legal writers use them all, depending on the reader. The same idea can be said in three ways.

None of these levels is always wrong. A court judgment, a statute and a lease have their own conventions, and you should follow them. A letter to a client who is not a lawyer, though, should almost never use the right-hand column.

• Ask who is reading. A client, a judge, an opposing lawyer and a regulator expect different levels.
• Ask what the document is. An email is less formal than a contract; a witness statement is closer to everyday speech than a statute.
• Stay consistent within one document. Mixing slang and heavy formal terms looks careless.

A warning for learners: when you are not sure, do not make your English more complicated to sound more “legal”. Long, heavy sentences are harder to get right, and mistakes in them are easier to see. Simple, correct English is safer, and readers respect it.

There is no single legal English. The language differs between countries, and a word you learned from one source may be wrong or unusual in another. The main varieties are these.

• England and Wales (British legal English), used in many Commonwealth countries with local differences.
• The United States, with its own vocabulary and its own court names.
• International English, used in cross-border contracts, arbitration and many companies. Often a simplified mix, written by and for non-native speakers.
• EU English, used in the institutions of the European Union, with some terms of its own.

You do not need to learn every difference. Decide who your readers are, choose one variety, and use it consistently. Where this course shows differences, it is to help you recognise a term when you meet it, not to ask you to learn both.

Many learners assume that good legal English is old, long and difficult. In fact, lawyers, judges and governments in many English-speaking countries have campaigned for decades for plain English in legal writing. Courts criticise unclear drafting, and clients prefer documents they can understand.

Plain English does not mean childish or imprecise. It means choosing the clearest accurate way to say something. It also helps non-native writers, because plain sentences are easier to build correctly.

• Use short sentences where you can, with one main idea in each.
• Prefer active to passive: “The seller must deliver the goods” rather than “The goods must be delivered by the seller”, unless you have a reason to hide or move the actor.
• Use everyday words when they are as exact as the formal ones.
• Keep technical terms where they have a precise meaning that no everyday word can carry, and explain them if the reader may not know them.
• Be consistent: if you call the buyer “the Buyer” in one clause, do not call it “the Purchaser” in the next.

In this course you will meet the traditional forms, so that you can read them, and then practise the plain forms, so that you can write them. Reading and writing are different skills, and the first does not require the second.