NATIONAL LAW INSTITUTE

UNIVERSITY, BHOPAL

SEMESTER – I
ENGLISH
PROJECT
ON
An Essay on characteristic defects
of legalese and how can they be removed
with special reference to India

SUBMITTED BY : KARTIKEY MISHRA

ROLL NO. : 2020BALLB 52

SUBMITTED TO : Prof. Mukesh Shrivastava

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 FEBRUARY 2020
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I am very grateful and thankful to My Professor Mr. Mukesh Shrivastava who provided me
with this opportunity to research on this topic , and without whose guidance this would have
not been possible .I would also like to thank the Gyan Mandir Library for providing me with
the resources with which I could complete my research .I would also like to thank my parents
and my dear friends without whose help I could not have completed this project .

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 DECLARATION

I,_Kartikey Mishra S/o_Mr. Vineet Kumar Mishra Roll Number

2020BALLB 52 Enrollment Number A2225 do hereby declare that the Project
titled “An Essay on characteristic defects of legalese and how can they be
removed with special reference to India ”is an outcome of my own
independent research endeavor and has been carried out under the guidance of
Prof. Mukesh Shrivastava . Literature relied on by me for the purpose of this
Project has been fully and completely acknowledged in the footnotes and
bibliography. The Project is not plagiarized and all reasonable steps have been
taken to avoid plagiarism. Similarity Index as per the Turnitin Report is____%.
In case, my project is found to be plagiarized, the course teacher shall have the
full liberty to ask me to revise the Project. If I fail to comply with the
instructions of the teacher, my project may be referred to the Committee
Against Use of Unfair Means and I will comply with the decision of the said
Committee.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. ABSTRACT 1
II. Review of Literature 2
III. Statement of Problem 2
IV. Hypothesis 3
V. Objectives of Research 3
VI. Research Questions 3
VII. Introduction 4
VIII. Legalese 4
IX. Defects of Legalese 6
X. Suggestions 8
XI. Conclusion 9
XII. Bibliography 10

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v
ABSTRACT
The language of law often referred as ‘Legalese’ is used in the legal discourse all over the
world and it is nothing but ‘so called English’ . The English language of our common
parlance is very different from that which is used in the legal context and thus, it is not an
exaggeration to give it that title of being ‘so-called’. English is the interlinking language
worldwide but this cannot be said in the case of English in law . Thus , this language of law is
not English but is an ESP i.e. ‘English for special purpose’. This language of law is very
complex and difficult to construe and it has various defects which need to be identified and
then get rid off .
In the Indian context , it is said that English is the thread of unity and it acts as a interlinking
language which binds people residing in different parts of the nation . Though , some argue
that it is an alien language and was imputed and imbibed upon the Indians , but one cannot
deny that it has become the language used almost all the executive and judicial works . But
the language used in law and jurisprudence in India is even more alien and coerced because it
is not merely english but a farrago of English , Latin and even our regional languages which
has resulted in formation of ambiguity vagueness in the Indian Judicial system . The
preamble of our constitution and the IPC are great examples of how this language of law is
not made for layman but only for the lawman .
It contains defects like use of prolixity , archaic expressions , latin and foreign phrases etc.
which make it very difficult for a layman to understand the language and this is detrimental
for the whole judicial system as well as for common people because providing justice
becomes the game of being rhetoric and whoever could utilize these resources more becomes
the most renowned professional in law
Thus, in this research we will deal with these defects of english in the judicial context and in
the context of law , and what are the suitable methods which need to be adopted in order to
remove these defects .The researcher tries to describe these defects of legalese with different
examples and also provides methods to remove these and at last he reaches to the conclusion
that the modern language of law in India needs certain modifications and even the
educational institutions can play a vital role in this process along with the judiciary itself and
why there is a need for plain English movement in our country if such defects are not
removed .

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Introduction to research methodology

 Review of Literature

1. The language of law by David Mellinkoff

This book was a very great resource of information for the research . The book talks
about how legal legal language is very peculiar and is not English itself but a branch
of English . The book in the initial parts talks about the origin of legal language and
it’s roots in the Anglo-Saxton language . The book later talks about how the other
languages such as French and latin affected the legal language and became part of it .
The author talks about the modern day relevance of legalese and also gives the reader
an idea about the grammer used in legalese .Therefore this book was of great help for
the researcher to understand about the topic in depth and reach a conclusion .

2. Legal Language by sir Peter Tiersma

This piece of literature informed about the author about the primary and foremost
defects of the legal language and why there is an urgent need to contemplate about
this issue and try to remove the use of such language . The book contains a few
examples of how the common people may face some problems to understand this
complex language of law and how it may also lead to injustice at time because of the
difficult clauses in agreements drafted in order to deceive the people with the help of
legalese . Thus , this book was very helpful for this research .

3. Legal Language as ‘English for specific Purposes’: A Study by V. Sabnis

This literature piece was referred to by the researcher to understand about how the
language of law is not actually english but it is a type of English which is used for the
purposes of law . This also includes various types of defects which have been
highlighted by the writer in brief , also how much relevance does legalese have in
modern context has also been told by the writer . Therefore the literature has helped in
the research to a very great extent .

Statement of Problem
The problem lies in the fact that though it is very difficult for common people to understand
the language of law , it still persists and continues to have these defects and leads to
ambiguities which needs to be identified and removed .The judges and lawyers still use this
expressions while they give their contentions and judgements which needs an urgent attention
in order to get rid of these legalese .

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Hypothesis
The language of law is such that only the lawman can understand it and not the layman . The
legal language contains various defects which need to be found and later tried to be removed .
The Indian Judicial system also contains use of legalese and therefore there is a scope of
amendments and modifications to remove such defects .

Objectives of Research
The research would try to accomplish the following objectives :
1. To understand about legalese and it’s defects .

2. To look into the condition of India Judicial system with respect to legalese .

3. To provide some suggestions and measures which can help to remove such defects in
legalese .

Research Question
The following questions would be tried to answer through this research :
1. What are legalese and what are it’s defects ?

2. How can these defects of legalese be removed ?

3. What is the condition of Indian Judicial System with respect to the use of legalese ?

Method of Research
This research would follow the doctrinal method of research .

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Introduction
India is a country where the people see the judiciary with utmost respect and have their faith
and trust in the Judicial system . The courts of our country are seen as temples of justice
where people come with hope of justice and tell their grievances without any fear and seek
the ultimate justice from the courts which is supposed to provide speedy justice without any
favour and prejudices . The judges are known as ‘Nyaya Murti’ which means the idol of
justice in hindi , therefore they are seen with ultimate hope of nyaya or justice . The
profession of law is said to be one of the three noble professions and lawyers are the saviours
of people from any harm to their rights .
But in the modern world this noble profession has become a business and one of the major
reasons for this is that the common people are not able to understand the language of law
prevailing in the land .The language which is used in drafting such laws is very different and
difficult to understand and most of the people are not able to understand such language and
therefore only the persons who have academic qualification to study such text that is the
lawyers and judges etc. are able to construe the actual meaning of such laws .Therefore it is a
fact that layman are exploited by the lawman because of the complexities of the language of
law .

Legalese
Legalese is simply , the language of law which is used in the legislations , judgements ,acts
and statues etc. which one might say that is English .Different countries of the world have
used english for the judicial purposes , India being one of them .Thus, simply we could say
that language used by the legal professionals such as lawyers and judges is termed as
legalese.
But when we look at this language closely , we find that it is not simply English or the
language of English which the common people read and write ,but it is a more complex form
of language which is a mixture of various languages along with language and contains even a
grammer and sentence structure of it’s own .It contains a peculiar form of language in such a
way that they seem to be technical and rhetorical in nature and it contains some judicial
expressions of it’s own along with use of phrases and maxims from various languages .
Legalese is characterized by long sentences, many modifying clauses, complex vocabulary,
high abstraction, and insensitivity to the layman's need to understand the document's gist.1In
more simpler terms we could say that the language which is used in the whole process of law
either by the lawyers , judges ,arbitrators in the contracts and agreements or drafts and even
in the Constitution itself is the language of law or legalese .
The language of law has a very peculiar approach and in a way is not a reader friendly
language which can be understood by the common people . It contains some qualities and
characteristics which are often referred as defects by the critics who advocate for a simple
and reader friendly usage of language in the courts and the process of law .

1
Wikipedia contributors, 'Legal writing', Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 30 December 2020
<https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Legal_writing&oldid=997095360> [accessed 2 February 2021]

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Different scholars of law and judges say that such criticism is wrong and the language
already is simple and easy to understand and the judges and lawyers have adopted the
practice to use such language and are comfortable with this . But actual reasons for such
statements as interpreted by the critics is that law professionals run their business on grounds
of such intricate and peculiar language and if the simple english is used in place of legalese ,
their might be a less requirement of lawyers . Thus different people have different viewpoints
over the issue of legalese .
The language contains a lot of characteristics such as jargons , archaic expressions which will
be elaborated in the next section , which cannot be understood by the common people . Thus
there have been various instances where use of plin and simple English is advocated . Thus
these plain English movements highlight the need for a easier language which could be
understood by all . The proponents say that law is made for common people and herfore if the
common people could not understand such laws , it would be defeat of justice . The common
men should be able to understand and know about their duties and rights and for this the
paramount approach should be to make the language of such laws and legal text simple and
clear which could be easily comprehended by everyone .
David Mellinkoff in the Language of law has defined legalese to be as “wordy,pompous and
dull”2 . This gives us an idea that legalese is not just very difficult to understand but the
common people find it very difficult to interpret the text and thus they are also hateful about
the language .
Annelize Nienber , another critic of legalese has in a way explained legalese and it’s defects
by saying that “obscure expression, Latin terms, technical jargon, wordiness, long complex
sentences, seemingly meaningless repetitions and archaicisms”3
In India , Legalese is not limited to mere change in the English language but it also consists
of various other languages such as Hindi and Marathi etc. which are used for the purpose of
law . We have terms like Munsiff’s Court and Jaat Panchayats as well as Lok Adalats which
are actually not associated with English or colonialism but have expressions from Indian
Languages , but they cannot be understood by each and every individual due to great
linguistic distinction in the country .
One more interesting observation which the researcher has made that legalese is not confined
to be used in the Legal proceedings only but in the academics as well and this makes it
difficult even for the students to accept the legal vocabulary and adopt it . Thus , ambiguity
may also exist for scholars of law as well who are entering in to the field for first time .
Therefore , we get an understanding that legalese is basically the language which is used in
law and in the judicial process and it has certain peculiarities not just in the usage but also in
the terms of the vocabulary and grammer which is involved in it . Critics call them as defects
but we now need to look at what are these characteristic defects of legalese which make
legalese different from other forms of English and later we would try to provide some ways
through which such defects can be removed .

2
David Mellinkoff , The Language o f the Law.( Little Brown and Company, 1963)
3
Tandon & Behl , Legal Language and Legal Drafting with General English ( Allahabad Law Agency, 2015)pg.10

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Defects of Legalese
The special characteristics of legalese and legal writings are said to be beauty of the law by
some renowned jurists and law professionals but the critics signify them as being defects in
the language of law . These defects are not exhaustible and with time and with growing
cases , the use of such defects is increasing along with new entries to the list of such defects .
We can find these defects to be ubiquitous in almost all the acts statues and judgement s of
the court in India itself , therefore the Indian Judiciary also uses these defects in legalese
which might be hard to understand for common Indian people . Thus , let us try to understand
some of these defects of legalese :

 Prolixity
Prolixity basically means extending the sentences and making them long . Anything
which is prolix is lengthened therefore prolixity is using more than the normal no. of
words which could have been used to define the same thing in a clear manner .The
use of prolixity makes a sentence monotonous and might end up making no real sense
, and this could have been explained in a less number of words giving an actual sense
of what the law actually wants to state . We have many instances in our laws where
there are stretched and prolonged definitions provided to a legal term .If we look at
the term Industry which has been defined in the Industrial Dispute Act of 1947 , it
says that an ‘Industry means any business, trade, undertaking, manufacture or calling
of employers and includes any calling service, employment, handicraft, or industrial
occupation or avocation of workmen.’ This is a very short example of a prolonged
definition , an industry could have been simply described as any organisation which
hires or employs people to earn profit is an industry . But this definition has been
explained in such a long manner but still gives the same meaning and even the latter is
easier to understand .

 Technical Terms
The legal fraternity has it’s own terms which have their simple counterparts in the
English language , but still they are used . Thus , law is not related to medical
organisms or machines involved in engineering which need scientific names , in law
there may be simple words having same meaning but certain technical terms are not
used . some examples of these technical terms may be – Tenant , Decree , Perjury ,
abate etc. which have their simple counterparts available such as paying guests(for
tenant) but still the willful use of these technical terms makes the legal language hard
to construe .

 Archaic Expressions
Archaic expressions are basically cliches which are outdated but are still being used in
the legal language to beautify or use it as an ornamental expression which might
confuse the layman about what could actually this word mean and in what sense has it
been used . Examples of archaic expressions could be found in almost every section
of the Indian Contract Act or the other acts as well such as hereto ,thereto ,and

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 whomsoever etc. which are just one word but it could be very difficult to find their
meaning even in a dictionary .

 Foreign words
A lot of foreign words are used in the legal language which are not very popular in the
common parlance .Even a small scale use of these words could have been excused but
in Indian Laws these expressions are not just used at a large scale but are used to
imply to the most essential meanings which might have been implied by the use of
very simple english terms . The use of latin terms known as legal maxims in India are
said to be the most important learning for a law student . Sometimes these two -three
word expressions might infer a very big meaning and it is very important to replace
these latin terms .Some example of these maxims are – Res Judicata , Jus Terti , Suo
Moto etc .

 Terms of common parlance having different meanings in laws

There are a lot of words which might be understood to a layman but ones he reads it
in the legal context , he might find the word to be very different from what the
meaning of that word in the spoken language is . Therefore these word are deceptive
in nature . An example of these words is:
1. Action – in common parlance it means any act or any measures adopted but in
legal sense it is used to infer a lawsuit or a legal proceeding .

 Regular use of words together (doublets and triplets)

Another defect which is present in almost every Indian law is the defect of using
synonymous words together which in legal sense is used to provide a clear and
ambiguous meaning but actually it leads to more ambiguity .These expressions could
to traced out in a lot of Indian laws .some of them are : able and willing ,bill and
note ,goods and chattels and some triplets such as form , manner and method and
possession ,custody and control .

 Passive voice usage

Passive voice is basically longer than it’s active voice in most of the cases but they
convey the same meaning .In law passive voice is used to a large extent and this leads
to extension in the sections and clauses , also there is a large usage of terms like must
be , maybe etc. while using the legalese .

 Circumlocutions
Circumlocution is also used at many instances in the Indian laws .Circumlocutions
basically means talking about something in a round about manner . The writer wants
to explain a strict and consolidated meaning but talks here and there and leaves
making no sense to the reader . There is no blunt speech but only talk about the
immaterial aspects of a law .The judges often refer the state as the guardians of law ,
which is actually not exactly saying as protectors but creating ambiguity by the usage
of a circumlocutory term .They could even be longer than a pages and make no sense.

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  Legal Jargons
Every field has certain terms which are not understood by others , but in law such
expressions are innumerable .Wikipedia defines jargon as ‘Jargon is the specialized
terminology associated with a particular field or area of activity4’
A lot of legal jargons could be found in various laws and judgements of India .It is
often said that these are the favourite instruments of lawyers and journalists in
India .Some of these expressions are chilling effects , instance case ,battery etc.

 Nominalization
Basically nominalization is a syntactic process .It means conversion of an adjective or
a verb into a noun’. It is used at a large scale in the Indian Judiciary . The use of some
suffixes like ment or ion are used by judiciary to convey a noun which was normally
an adjective .This sometimes may make it difficult for the reader to understand about
the actual meaning of the expression .
The following are the examples of this process and it’s usge in law :
The word promise is added with different suffixes to form the words promisor or
promise which have opposite meanings ,same is the case with transfer and mortgage .

Thus , now we have looked into different types of defects of legalese .There could be few
more as they are prevalent in the legal judgements and texts .But we have learned about he
one which are very common .
After having understood about different defects it is very important for the researcher to
provide some suggestions which might be helpful in removing the ambiguities and vagueness
present in the laws .

Suggestions
The use of legalese has made it very difficult for common people to get access to law and
information related to it .This defect needs urgent modification and needs to be removed from
the Indian Judicial system .Apart from the Plain English Movement there are various other
ways which can be adopted and enforced and they might be able to remove such defects in
Legalese .The following methods may help in removing the characteristic defects of legalese
in India :
 Reforms in education system
The Indian Education System contains an in depth study of different branches of
science , social etc. but there are very few schools which provide law as a distinct
subject .Therefore the NCERT textbooks can have an additional subject between class
6-8 or more which would provide the students with basic introduction to law and legal
language . This could be the primary step in order to make the legal language plain
and understandable to the students of our nation .

4
Wikipedia contributors, 'Jargon', Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 6 January 2021,
<https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jargon&oldid=998597650> accessed 7 February 2021

8
  Editing and reformulating the existing laws and statues
This step will be the biggest and the most important step which would take time but at
the end the judicial system will be free from legalese .There is a possibility of protest
from many law professionals but for the betterment of society at large it is very
important to ensure that laws like IPC and Constitution are reformulated .

 News laws should be plain and simple

The formulation of new laws should be plain and simple and in a language that not
just the lawmen but the laymen can also understand the nuances of law and protest if
any injustice happens .

 Contribution of UGC and Law Universities

The UGC should try to invoke law and legal language as an essential to the courses of
bachelor in arts . Also several law universities across the nation should try to adopt
some villages or town nearby , where the rural and the vulnerable people could be
taught about the process of law and legal language .

 Promoting Plain English Movement

Plain English Movement should be given it’s support by the various scholars in law at
a large scale and if one feels about the defects of legalese to be detrimental then he
may contribute to the plain english movement .This will have a deep impact on the
government and the legal system to introspect .
Therefore , after providing these suggestions it is time to reach a proper conclusion for our
project .

Conclusion
This research project involved a broad study about legalese and it’s defects and after looking
into the subtle nuances about the topic , the researcher could provide certain
suggestions .Thus this research also validated the hypothesis of the researcher about legalese
that the language of law is such that only the lawman can understand it and not the layman .
The legal language contains various defects which need to be found and later tried to be
removed . The Indian Judicial system also contains use of legalese and therefore there is a
scope of amendments and modifications to remove such defects .Thus the research could also
answer the research questions and reach it’s objectives .
Therefore at last the researcher would say that the need for simple language can be answered
by one of the legal maxims ,which itself is a legalese and it says that ‘Ignorantia Juris Non
Execusat’ which means ignorance of law is not an excuse . Thus , for this maxim there is a
need that the people should actually understand the law which is not possible without
removing the defects of legalese .At last researcher would say in own words that -
“The purpose of law is to safeguard the layman and not unjustly enrich the lawman”

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BIBLIOGRAPHY
BOOKS
1. Mellinkoff D. , The Language o f the Law.( Little Brown and Company, 1963)

2. Tandon M.P. & Behl Nishi , Legal Language and Legal Drafting with
General English ( Allahabad Law Agency, 2015)pg.10

3. Tiersma, Peter. Legal Language. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999.

WEBSOURCES
1. Wikipedia contributors, 'Legal writing', Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 30
December 2020 <https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?
title=Legal_writing&oldid=997095360> [accessed 2 February 2021]

2. Wikipedia contributors, 'Jargon', Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 6 January 2021,

<https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jargon&oldid=998597650> accessed 7
February 2021

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