Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Acknowledgements, second edition
- List of Panels and Tables
- Table of Statutes and Subsidiary Legislation
- Table of Cases
- Introduction
- 1 What Influences the Legal Drafter
- 2 How Legal Documents are Interpreted
- 3 The Move towards Modern English in Legal Drafting
- 4 Some Benefits of Drafting in Plain English
- 5 What to Avoid when Drafting Modern Documents
- 6 How to Draft Modern Documents
- 7 Using the Modern Style
- Further Reading
- Index
6 - How to Draft Modern Documents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Acknowledgements, second edition
- List of Panels and Tables
- Table of Statutes and Subsidiary Legislation
- Table of Cases
- Introduction
- 1 What Influences the Legal Drafter
- 2 How Legal Documents are Interpreted
- 3 The Move towards Modern English in Legal Drafting
- 4 Some Benefits of Drafting in Plain English
- 5 What to Avoid when Drafting Modern Documents
- 6 How to Draft Modern Documents
- 7 Using the Modern Style
- Further Reading
- Index
Summary
In the previous chapter we considered some of the techniques to avoid when drafting modern legal documents. The emphasis was on the negative – what not to do. Now we turn to the positive – what to do. That is, we consider some of the techniques to be adopted when drafting legal documents in the modern style.
Modern, standard English
We begin with a proposition that underlies all we have said so far in this book: legal documents should be written in modern, standard English – that is, in standard English as currently used and understood. Identifying modern, standard English is not difficult. It can be found in articles in the more serious newspapers, in popular and academic books on many subjects, and in reports of governments and public authorities. Its hallmark is a style that is direct, informative and readable.
For many traditional lawyers, the move to modern, standard English is difficult. It forces them to rethink, and rethinking takes time. To begin with, they must switch from stilted, archaic constructions to modern, idiomatic equivalents. For example, instead of such or the said, they must write the; instead of in the event that, they must write if; instead of notwithstanding the fact that, they must write despite. But more is required than simply a process of translation. While merely updating terminology will help, a well-drawn document goes further. It takes into account matters of structure, layout, word order, and design.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Modern Legal DraftingA Guide to Using Clearer Language, pp. 167 - 221Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006