Historical Development of Legal English

Chapter 2 Historical Development of Legal English

Modem legal English is based on standard English. However,it contains a number of unu­sual features. These largely relate to terminology, linguistic structure, linguistic conventions, and punctuation, and have their roots in the history of the development of English as a legal lan­guage.

Following the Norman invasion of England in 1066, Anglo - Norman French became the official language of legal proceedings in England for a period of nearly 300 years. Consequent­ly , many words in common use in modem legal English are derived from what evolved into Law French. These include property, estate, chattel, lease, executor, and tenant. The use of Law French during this period has an enduring influence on the general linguistic register of modem legal English. It also accounts for some of the complex linguistic structures employed in legal writing. During this period, Latin remained the language of formal records and statutes. How­ever, since only the learned were fluent in Latin,it never became the language of legal plea­ding or debate. The influence of Latin can be seen in a number of words and phrases such as ad hoc, de facto, bona fides, inter alia, and ultra vires, which remain in current use in legal

wntinor (D

ings should be in English,but recorded in Latin. Nonetheless,the use of French in legal plead­ings continued into the seventeenth century in some areas of the law. In this later period,new branches of - in particular - commercial law began to develop entirely in English and remain relatively free of French - based terminology.

As the printed word became more commonplace, some writers made a deliberate effort to a- dopt words derived from Latin, with the aim of making their text appear more sophisticated. Some legal words taken from Latin in this way are adjacent, frustrate, inferior, legal, quiet and subscribe. Some writers also started to use a Latin word order. This led to an ornate style,delib­erately used to impress rather than inform. Even today,Latin grammar is responsible for some of the omateness and unusual word order of legal documents. It also lies behind the frequent use of shall constructions in legal documents.

English was adopted for different kinds of legal documents at different times. Wills began to be written in English approximately during the 1400’s. Statutes were written in Latin until a- bout 1300’s,in French until 1485,in English and French for a few years,and in English alone from 1489.