Plain English Movement And Its Impact On Indian Statute

Aarush Shrikant Patil, Gujarat National Law University

ABSTRACT

D Mellinkoff once said “Plain English is the best hope of a profession whose writing, for better and for worse, lies at the heart of the rule of law.”1

The plain English movement is a much-needed global campaign to rewrite all legal documents in simple English that any ordinary person can understand. It has been around for more than five decades and has seen numerous ups and downs. Several countries have taken a step ahead in developing and implementing strategies to increase the use of in legal documents, use straightforward English. The Plain English Movement, which began in the 1970s, is a movement towards use of plain, simple, and comprehensible English by lawyers, legal scholars, and judges. It aims to make the legal language easily comprehensible to an average person who may not hold required technical and legal knowledge. French and Latin expressions are commonly used in legal writing by lawyers, legal scholars, judges and even law students. The reason for the popularity of these expressions in the Middle Ages can be traced back to the victory of King William of Normandy in the Battle of Hastings. Even after Henry VI became the King in the 15th Century, the influence of Latin and French prevailed. This paper focuses on the criticism that has been made and how it has been addressed. It will potentially offer ideas for some of the concerns that apply in simple English movement. This movement began as a result of the drawbacks and criticism that arose from the use of complicated legal English. People wanted a plain English movement to ensure that they could know the information in a clear and simple way because legal documents and consumer related information had more complex terms and the public lacked clarity and conveyance of perfect applied information was not delivered by the current legal English.