3.6 Specific Characteristics of Legalese

Legalese = the traditional obscurity of legal drafting. Know its features — both to read old documents and to write new ones better. 1. Extra-long sentences with embedded provisos (statutes of 300+ words: the celebrated 630- word sentence of the old English Dentists Act 1878 style survives in many jurisdictions' older Acts). 2. Nominalisation — verbs become abstract nouns: "the making of payment by the licensee" instead of "the licensee pays" — hide syntax, multiply words, delete actors. 3. Passive constructions hiding who acts (Unit 2.3). 4. Proveto-proviso drafting: "Provided that… provided further that… provided always that…" — stacked exceptions instead of a clean structure of rule, then exception, then exception to the exception. 5. Archaic vocabulary: the hereby/thereof/aforesaid/witnesseth family (3.5A) and Latin tags without translation. 6. Defensive redundancy: saying everything thrice "to be safe" — which creates three versions to argue about. 7. Defined-term thickets: every noun Capitalised and Defined until the reader needs a glossary; good drafting defines only what needs defining. 8. Boilerplate blocks (entire-agreement, severability, notices…) pasted without adaptation — check each clause's fit, definitions and cross-references every time. 9. Provocative formality: NOW THEREFORE THIS DEED WITNESSETH… — ritual language inherited from parchment days. 10. Sentence-initial conjunctions as signposts (And, Provided that, Whereas) doing work that headings and numbering now do better.