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.