Almost everyone who has interacted with the law shares a common complaint: that they are extremely complex. This charge can be more fairly applied against certain laws (Transfer of Property Act 1882 for instance). But the broader question is worth pondering over. Why are laws written in a language that is difficult to comprehend?
The Common Explanation
The standard explanation suggests that laws have to take into account countless possibilities in the real world. This is an extremely difficult task, particularly for a world that is evolving at an unprecedented rate. To reflect the different scenarios in the world, the written text ends up becoming dense and intricate.
Critics’ Perspective
However, this explanation has been challenged by many scholars. In his one of the most cited law review papers of all time, Marc Galanter remarked that lawyers have an interest in ‘preserving the complexity and mystique’ of laws to ensure that people have to rely on their services to make sense of the laws. He illustrated the same with the help of the following publication by an American Bar Association:
“No person should ever apply or interpret any law without consulting his attorney. Even a slight difference in the facts may change the result under the law.”
If people can interpret the laws without the help of lawyers, it would make the lawyers redundant. A similar charge has been levelled against the Indian Constitution. Owing to its length and complexity, British constitutional scholar Ivor Jennings called it a “lawyer's paradise”.
MIT Study and the “Magic Spell Hypothesis”
Recently, an interesting study explored this question further. The empirical study, involving researchers from MIT, found support for the ‘Magic Spell Hypothesis’. Just like magic spells use language in a peculiar fashion (‘expecto patronum’) to denote their power, laws are written in a distinctive style to signal their authority. This suggests that the complexity of legal language might be less about the subject matter and more about the unique nature of laws themselves—tools designed to alter the world in authoritative ways.
One remarkable finding of the study is that the tendency to write laws in a complex language is not limited to lawyers and law drafters. Even laypersons use convoluted language when asked to draft laws. That is why the study is titled ‘Even Laypeople Use Legalese’.
On a broader note, it is fascinating to observe how things that are difficult to comprehend often hold certain power over us. A prime example of this could be religion. The themes covered by most religions (origin, meaning, purpose of life) are so complicated and incomprehensible at some level that they can end up towering over us. Interestingly, much of this power can dissipate when we strive to see things more clearly. That is indeed the core tenet of mindfulness meditation: the more clearly, we see our thoughts, the less power they have over us. Clarity, in other words, can be empowering.
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