Give or do when you make a contract, for example.

Mr Thorpe: You lawyers have a language all of your own!

Mr Mansfield: Yes, it can be confusing. Any other questions?

Mr Thorpe: Well, yes, there is. Urn, there's something I've

Always wanted to know - could you explain why these

provisions are so incredibly difficult to understand? I mean,

the subject matter itself isn't too difficult. It's fairly logical,

after all. But the way it's written... That's another story.

Mr Mansfield: Well, that's what's known as 'legalese', the

Special style of language used in legal documents. It can be

pretty hard to penetrate, I'm afraid.

Mr Thorpe: But I'm reasonably well educated and I'm an

experienced businessman. You'd think I'd be able to

Understand something written for the purpose of conducting

business without difficulty, wouldn't you? In my opinion,

there's something wrong when texts are too difficult for the

Majority of people who have to deal with them to

Understand.

Mr Mansfield: Then you'd agree with the Plain Language

Movement.

Mr Thorpe: What's that?

Mr Mansfield: That's a school of thought that believes that legal

Documents - actually, documents of all kinds - should be

Written so that you can understand them easily the first time

You read them. The way they see it, when it comes to legal

Texts, people are entitled to understand the documents that

Bind them or state their rights.

Mr Thorpe: As far as I'm concerned, that's very sensible.

Mr Mansfield: It is, I agree. And I think the idea is becoming

Increasingly popular. Many organisations and jurisdictions

Already recommend plain-language principles. And many

Legal writing courses at universities stress the merits of

Plain language.

Mr Thorpe: But there's still a long way to go ...

Mr Mansfield: There are always those who resist change. And

The language of law is, by its very nature, inherently

Conservative. In the law, texts have authority, language has

authority, and there's often a long tradition behind them. So

You can understand a certain tendency to want to preserve

Old habits of speaking and writing.

Mr Thorpe: Yes, that may be true. To my mind, the fact that the

Language of the law is so difficult for non-lawyers makes us

all need the services of lawyers more - as interpreters!

Unit 4

Listening1

Part I

Good evening, everyone. It's good to see that so many of you

Were able to attend my presentation this evening. Some of you

May know me already, but allow me to introduce myself. My

name's Adrian Crawford. I'm with the Mergers and Acquisitions

department of our firm. Right. As you know, I'll be speaking

About acquisitions this evening, specifically about a range of

Issues connected with acquisitions which are particularly

relevant for business owners like yourselves. I'm going to tell

you about the process you're about to begin and what awaits

You. Please feel free to interrupt me at any time, should you

Have any questions.

Right, at this point, I'd like to give you a short overview of my

presentation. I'm going to start with a few comments on how

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 1143