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Legal Usage - A Modern Style Guide
Author
:
Peter Butt
A clear and easy-to-use guide for legal writers in common law countries.
Publication Language: English
Published: November 03, 2017
Publisher: LexisNexis Australia
Style guides for legal writing are rare — especially for lawyers and law students in British, Australian and other Commonwealth jurisdictions. This book fills that gap. It explores all aspects of legal usage. The purpose is to encourage a modern legal style that is clear, concise, elegant, reader-friendly and legally effective.
The book is organised alphabetically by word, phrase and subject matter, with extensive cross-referencing to related topics. The author cites hundreds of usage examples from leading judges in common law jurisdictions. He offers simple plain-language alternatives for numerous technical terms and foreign-language phrases, with supporting examples from judgments and legal texts.
Topics include:
- organising material logically
- adding impact to sentences
- writing in ways that are gender-neutral and idiomatic
- minimising ambiguity
- using provisos and recitals
- breaking complex material into digestible chunks
- paragraphing effectively
- punctuating properly
- managing definitions
- handling principles of interpretation
- eliminating prolixity
- creating effective headings
- using (or avoiding) terms of art and Latin phrases
- avoiding ‘fussy’ drafting
- creating effective layout and design
- using graphs, diagrams, notes and examples