Crystal Clear

There is a rising concern about the complexity of the language used in legislative drafting, and its understandability by common citizens. The increasing complex nature of modern society, on the opposite side, leads to increasingly complex regulation and the use of technical concepts to address technical issues. Answering this concern, the use of plain language in legislative drafting has been in the spotlight for years in the United States of America and the United Kingdom.

This trend is inspired by several dierent concerns, namely that the Rule of Law implies i) that everyone should be able to understand their legal rights and duties; and ii) that people who are required to understand legal requirements for their day-to-day professional activities have also the right to be fully aware of their rights and duties.

However, there are some critics on the possibility of using plain language widely, taking into consideration several factors such as that the plain language emphasis on brevity and layperson understanding may sacrifice accuracy for precision, among others.

Finally, one must bear in mind that there has been a discussion on the use of plain language for years, but not much study on how to draft in plain language and how to transform highly technical legal text into more understandable legal texts.

Encontre a apresentação do nosso orador principal – Martin Cuts – here.