Legal documents have a reputation for being nearly impossible to understand, even for those trained in law.
This raises a simple but important question: Why are these documents written in such a complicated way?
Researchers at MIT believe they’ve found the answer.
According to their study, the confusing language used in legal documents, often called “legalese,” may serve a purpose similar to that of “magic spells.”
Just as spells use special words and phrases to seem more powerful, the complex language of legal documents might be used to make them seem more authoritative.
The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows that even people without legal training use this style when they write laws.
“People seem to understand that there’s an unspoken rule about how laws should sound, so they write them that way,” says Edward Gibson, a professor of brain and cognitive sciences at MIT and the senior author of the study.
The lead author of the study is Eric Martinez, who has a Ph.D. and a law degree from Harvard Law School. Francis Mollica, a lecturer at the University of Melbourne, also contributed to the paper.
The “Magic Spell” of legal language
Gibson’s research group began studying the odd characteristics of legal language in 2020 when Martinez joined MIT after completing his law degree.
In a previous study from 2022, Gibson, Martinez, and Mollica analyzed a vast collection of legal contracts—about 3.5 million words in total.
They compared these legal documents to other types of writing, such as movie scripts, newspaper articles, and academic papers.
Their analysis showed that legal documents often contain long, complex definitions inserted right in the middle of sentences.
This feature, known as “center-embedding,” is something that linguists know makes text much harder to understand.
“Legalese has developed a habit of putting complicated structures within other structures, which isn’t typical of most human languages,” Gibson explains.
In another study published in 2023, the researchers found that even lawyers find legal language difficult to understand.
When given the choice, lawyers preferred simpler, plain English versions of legal documents and found them just as enforceable as the traditional, complex versions.
“Lawyers don’t like legalese, and neither do regular people,” says Gibson. “So, we wanted to figure out why legal documents are still written this way.”
The “copy and edit” hypothesis
The researchers considered a few possible reasons why legalese remains so widespread. One idea they explored is called the “copy and edit hypothesis.”
According to this hypothesis, legal documents might start out simple, but as more information and conditions are added, the sentences become more complex.
Over time, this editing process leads to the confusing, center-embedded clauses that are so common in legal writing.
“We think what happens is you start with a straightforward draft, and then, as you add more details and conditions, it’s easier to just insert them into existing sentences,” says Martinez, who now teaches at the University of Chicago Law School.
This research helps explain why legal documents are written in such a difficult style, even though both lawyers and the general public would prefer simpler language.
Understanding this could be a step toward making legal language more accessible to everyone.
Source: MIT.
