LEGAL SPANISH AND THE PLAIN LANGUAGE MOVEMENT

LEGAL SPANISH AND THE PLAIN LANGUAGE MOVEMENT.Adela Pérez del Viso  (**)Abstract: This article refers to the particularities of legal Spanish, with special reference to its periphrastic features and need to avoid ambiguities, due to the legal aspect that pervades the language. After a descriptive analysis of the legal language, a thesis related to the need to foster plain language is explained. The need of plain language is presented as a requirement imposed by constitutional rules. Abstract: Este artículo explica las particularidades del idioma español legal. En especial se explican algunas características, tales como el aspecto perifrástico, y la necesidad de dejar de lado todo tipo de ambigüedades debido a la exigencia de precisión que se observa todo a lo largo del lenguaje. Luego de un análisis lingüístico descriptivo,  se expresa finalmente la tesis de que el lenguaje legal debe ser “llano” y ello debido a que de esa manera se cumplirá ciertos requerimientos establecidos por la Constitución Nacional. LEGAL SPANISH AND THE PLAIN LANGUAGE MOVEMENT.Legal professionals, who necessarily have to deal with different instances related to law discussions, typically use language and argumentation as an everyday tool. Words, language, discussion, oral or written argumentation, everything consists of instances to be use in the legal field.  As regards legal Spanish, some authors have tackled the topic whereas from the Logic perspective     or taking into account Oratory and its related abilities . Nevertheless, in the current situation lawyers and legal professionals are so immersed in their own day-to-day plight (telephone calls, last-hour hearings, stressful deadlines, etc) that barely can they appraise to any extent the kind of language they use and its particularities. Moreover, legal professionals tend to naturalize their technical language. They, in fact, make use of a typical group of linguistic forms which can be called legalese, and which in present days is considered a real jargon.  Lawyers debate with clients and colleagues, draft documents, propose them to clients –to be signed- and file them in court, in some sort of separated language expression which might well be called “Legal Spanish”.  In this work,   some reflections on legal terms under the light of descriptive Linguistics will be made. Our thesis implies that this newly-formed idiomatic set of expressions conform a system,  obliges plain inhabitants to learn it or avoid understanding, and lastly creates a frontier made up of language which might well be considered against certain constitutional rights. I-    Summary on Legal Spanish features: I.1. There is a group of features present in legal Spanish: a)    Latin and English borrowings.b)    Archaic and formal register. c)    Periphrastic type of language d)    Use of expressive redundancy.e)    Outmost need to avoid grammatical and semantic ambiguity. f)    Outmost need to clarification on deictic expressions.g)    Outmost need to clarify references.I.2.  Borrowings: “One of the most common sources in the origin of new words … is a process called Borrowing,  i. e. the use of words stemming from other languages”.  Latin Borrowings: Our legal system originates in the Roman administration of law. Another important contributor is the canonical code (related to the Catholic Church). Therefore, Latin has exerted great influence on the legal kind of language, due to its inner prestige and its capability to be used as lingua franca.  The great majority of legal training curricula include the study of the subject Derecho Romano for one or two years. Therefore, Latin language, which is inevitable part of Latin culture, ends up pervading every part of the realm of the lawyer in Spanish – speaking countries such as Argentina. On drafts and oral presentations, lawyers use Latin intertwined with Spanish, in a natural way they are even not aware of.  That is mainly what happens with some utterances such as “prima facie”, “rechazo in limine”, “el quantum de la demanda” ,   “El juez A quo”,  “…para que tenga efecto erga omnes”, “Petitum”,  “un testigo de visu et auditu…”,  “…una sucesión ab – intestato”, “es una presunción juris tantum”, “Ergo, lo que corresponde es…”,  “i.e.” (id est),   “v.g.” (verbi gratia) ,   etc.-Sometimes lawyers do not use a sole Latin word, but a whole Latin aphorism. They do that when they try to support one or more theories in process of verification.  This usage has  receded in the past decades, but it still remains in fashion, due to the strength and synthesis these expressions bare.  That is what happens with some aphorisms such as “Tantum apellatum quantum devolutum”, which can be more tan successfully used   in order to plea the appellate court to dismiss an appeal filed by the opponent, whenever it is not sufficiently thorough. The same situation is present in the case of the phrase “Suum qui que tribuere”, (Give everyone what they deserve) Another case could be the motto “in dubio pro…”  In dubio pro reo, In dubio pro operario.   Other examples being  “onus probandi” or “reformatio in pejus”. The list is endless. English borrowings: The well-known globalization process has created a need to express ideas and concepts originated in the English-speaking world. Therefore, when dealing with this material, English is the kind of language that is going to be instilled in legal Spanish. These borrowings appear when the law regulates the realm related to companies, exchange and commerce. Sometimes, legal Spanish will take the term and the concept altogether. Therefore, Franchising will mean exactly that:  the Franchising contract.  As it has happened with Latin, the terms end up naturalizing inside Spanish, and lawyers barely note that they are English terms. There are other instances when the term reaches legal Spanish, but as a mere sound, a term in a different language, but with a different meaning. That is what occurs with the expression “Mobbing”.   “Mobbing” as a whole array of rules and recommendations related to a situation that happens in the workplace,  is an institution under study since the 1980 decade, approximately.  Nevertheless, “Mobbing” is defined as “any repetitive, systematic and abusive behaviour which represents a threaten against the dignity or against the integrity of the people in the workplace. A Mobbing process whereas tends to put in danger the employment relationship or somehow degrades the work environment,  implying a moral or physical harassment against a person in the workplace.”  It is clear that a  more correct English term to head this definition would be “harassment” or “stalking”, and not mobbing, because not all “mobbing” situations will be developed by a mob. On the contrary, the typical kind of mobbing situation is the one performed by a sole person, and –if possible- not in front of others. All in all, the term Mobbing is nowadays part of our legal every-day language, even though lawyers in Argentina tend to pronounce it the wrong way (using a sound of “u” instead of an “o”). I-3 Archaic register:  The linguist and legal writer Enrique Alcaraz Varó considers that one of the features of legal English implies that it bares an extremely archaic form     In fact, this archaic register also pervades legal Spanish.  Most probably the cause of this fossilizing process resides in the lack of “productivity” or creativity in the language related to law.  In fact, Productivity is one of the characteristics of every language system. Inside every language, continually new terms and expressions are created, changed and even discarded. Language users tend to manipulate their linguistic sources in order to produce new terms and expressions. This property is called “productivity” of language  . This feature can be found in legal Spanish, but to a much lesser extent. In legal drafts and oral expressions, lawyers use expressions that irrefragably belong to Old Spanish.  Some examples of the latter are the expressions  “Dios guarde a Vuestra Señoría”, or  the term “Usía” or “Vuestra Señoría” (V.S.). In fact, the expression “Vuestra Señoría” could very well be considered against our Carta Magna, since Section 16 of the National Constitution states: “La Nación Argentina no admite prerrogativas de sangre, ni de nacimiento: no hay en ella fueros personales ni títulos de nobleza. Todos sus habitantes son iguales ante la ley, y admisibles en los empleos sin otra condición que la idoneidad. La igualdad es la base del impuesto y de las cargas públicas.”.   In other words, Section 16 implies that no blood or title prerogatives should be in fashion under the current law. Thus, the sole idea of the existence of a “Señoría” implies an odd remnant of Old Spanish.  Other expressions related to Old Spanish are as follows: “Fecho”,  “el encartado”,  “se ha incoado…. “,  “en autoridad de”, “So pretexto de”, “Estese a”, “Va de suyo que…”.  I-4) Periphrasis:Piero Calamandrei used to say that shortness and conciseness were certainly virtues that lawyers should apply in their presentations.  In present days, the Supreme Court of Argentina has issued a resolution that every “Recurso Extraordinario” should be drafted in a short document (no more than forty pages, twenty six lines each) implying that conciseness is a requirement to admit the filing of this utter plea.   . Conciseness is a rare ability to be developed in legal Spanish, due to the periphrastic characteristics of this language. **Circumlocution: A circumlocution is a figure which consists in “expressing an idea by way of a diversion of words, in order to say it in a more beautiful and powerful way”   There are instances in which the circumlocution is extremely necessary in legal Spanish. The author Alcaraz Varó states that legal Spanish uses the double of words to utter the same idea in English. For instance, Insider Trading  is currently translated into “Contratación en bolsa por quien posee información privilegiada”…. and Escape Liability in Damages   is meant for “Eludir la responsabilidad de indemnizar por daños y perjuicios”.    **Periphrasis: Legal Spanish makes use of different verbal periphrasis in order to reach precision and accuracyPeriphrasis are “syntactic combinations in which an auxiliary verb is used along with the main verb (whereas as infinitive, gerund or in a conjugated form). E.g.:  “No puedo entrar Iremos considerando cada caso.. Llevo escritas diez páginas. (…)”  Many auxiliary verbs are the result of a grammar process, and they have been modified in their meaning and form.”  In the case of legal Spanish, the periphrastic aspect aggravates, due to the urgent need of precision and accurate identification of subjects and objects in order to determine rights and obligation in drafts and depositions. **Expressive redundancy: As Alcaraz Varó  ( )  has stated, many repetitive constructions are present in the legal language, which imply the use of two or more synonyms. In legal Spanish, some cases are as follows: Formal recibo y carta de pago.Vende, cede y transfiere.Todas y cada una de . . .Nulo y sin efecto.Niego y desconozco. Hábil y en uso de mis facultades mentales.Visto y considerando. Dado, sellado y firmadoDe uso y conservación. Daños y perjuicios. Lo plantado, clavado y edificado. Some of these expressions are used as idioms due to the transmission between one generation and the next. Another possible cause for the use of these twin expressions implies that they are just idioms, or fixed expressions,  which have certain meaning that would be considered different had the terms been used in other way. *** Extreme need to avoid ambiguity: Lawyers and judges need to be precise at the moment to designate people and things. Therefore, instances of ambiguity must be suppressed for the sake of legal Security. One of the manifestations of this need to avoid ambiguity is the insistence to clarify every deictic utterances in use during hearings and oral instances.  ““Deixis” is a Greek term which means “pointing with the finger through language”.   When facing a witness in court, lawyers will fixate in asking “Which door did you refer to when you said “that” door”.  “Which place are you referring to when you say “there”?” That situation happens because the terms “this”, “that”, “there”, purport to point with an imaginary finger to certain places or things, that later on the judge (in reading the transcription) will not be able to visualize. Words such as “yesterday”, “tomorrow” are also intrinsically deictic, and the context of pronunciation will show if they present ambiguity as to the message or not. Lawyers must be well aware of that as well. II-    The plain language movement: Legal Spanish is a complex language, hard to understand and apprehend even for native Spanish speakers.  It could be understand as a kind of jargon, with expressions extra-large that perhaps could be summarized or simplified.This jargon feature is in fact shared with other particularized languages, such as Medical Spanish, Spanish language for business, Spanish for journalism and other professions. Contrary to that, some authors like Jurgen Habermas attain that all Social change must be achieved through a process inside the symbolic realm of communication and understanding among subjects. Habermas states that language and communication are intrinsically linked to man-work, and that they allow developing some kind of social action to enhance  cooperation in Society and Democracy. ( Following that idea, in English-speaking countries the “ Plain language movement”  has started, in search for simplicity in documents.   The main idea states that legal language should be this way: a)    Relevant b)    Short and concise. c)    Easy to follow and to be understood. d)    Direct and not on circumlocutions. e)    Friendly expressions for the reader.   Members of this think- tank state that it is necessary to simplify the legal language to be used in contracts or any other legal manifestation. Some law specialists state that by this means, Security (as a value) and Accuracy could be put in danger ( Nevertheless, the fact that legal Spanish is obscure and hard to understand is something undeniable. People are lost when facing any legal document, and in a desperate need to hire a lawyer. This situation could be considered a threaten to the RIGHT OF DEFENSE,  ruled by Section 18 National Constitution (of Argentina) and a breach of EQUALITY,  protected by Section 16 of the same legal document. In the XXI Century, there are film-graphic recordings of hearings, web pages for the activity of the courts, press offices for the judicial authorities, etc.   The question arises as to which kind of language those media entities are going to use. Are they going to make use of the complex “legal Spanish” or of a simpler one?   The answers must be clear:  they will need to use PLAIN LANGUAGE. By the means of avoiding jargon and complex expressions and adopting a plain language, authorities will begin to include more people and discard privileges. Language will become a powerfully democratic way of interaction and communication, even in the legal field. NOTES:

[1]Mans Puigarnau, Jaime: “Lógica para juristas.” Ed. Bosch, Barcelona, 1978. Pg. 193.

[2] Yule, George: “The study of language” 2da. Edición.Cambridge U.P.Cambridge, G.B., Pg. 92

[3]Yule George, op. cit, P. 65.

[4]Tomassetti, Marcos G: “Mobbing. Aspectos generales.” Microjuris. 20-8-2013. MJ DOC2944AR.

[5] Alcaraz Varó, Enrique: “El Inglés Jurídico Textos y documentos”. Ariel/ Derecho. 6ta. Edición. Barcelona

[6]. Yule, George: Op. Cit. pg. 23.

[7]Calamandrei, Piero: “Elogio de los jueces, escrito por un abogado”. Ediciones Jurídica Europa- America. Bs.As. 1969. Pg. 93.-

[8]Reglas para la interposición del Recurso Extraordinario, Acordada nro. 4/2007 de la C.S.J.N., B.O.: 21/3/2007)

[9]Diccionario de la Real Academia Española. Voz Circunlocución.

[10] Alcaraz Varó, Enrique: op cit. pg. 92.-

[11]Real Academia Española,“Nueva gramática de la lengua española- Manual” Asociación de academias de la lengua española.Editorial Planeta.Buenos Aires. 2010. P. 529

[12] Alcaraz Varó, Enrique: op cit P.76.

[13]Yule, George: “Pragmatics”Oxford University Press.Oxford Introductions to Language Study. 5ta impresión.2000. Hong Kong. Pg. 9.

[14]Habermas, Jurgen: “Teoría de la acción comunicativa. Complementos y estudios previos.” Madrid, Ed. Cátedra. 1989.

[15]www.plainlanguagenetwork.org/About_Plain_Language/aboutplainlanguage.html

[16]After argumentation of ALVAREZ VARÓ, Enrique: “El Inglés Jurídico”Ariel-Derecho, 6ta edición, Bs.As., 2007, pg. 73.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Adela Pérez del Viso is a lawyer (Universidad Nacional del Litoral 1986). Other certificates:Mediación en ámbitos comunitarios (Flacso/ UNSL 1997). Notaria (UNL 1988). The autor is a member of Equipo Federal de Trabajo, and ex member of the Observatorio de Derechos Humanos de San Luis FCE 1997, CAE 2007, ILEC 2009ex Labour-Law teacher at Universidad Católica de Cuyo (San Luis) trainee teacher at I.F.D.C San Luis (currently studying last year subjects) Profesorado de Inglés. Legal Law teacher (level I and II) at Colegio de Abogados de San Luis. The author was awarded with the Yad Vashem scholarship in January 2008.

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