Quote:
Originally Posted by MarchHare
There's a huge difference between government/corporate communications being written in plain English (or French) vs. what PP is proposing here: he wants actual laws to be written that way. Laws, by their very nature, must be explicit, detailed, and precise in how they are written or else they will be open to unintended consequences, misinterpretation, or abuse of loopholes.
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Moreover, there are endless words that have judicially determined meaning ascribed to them through precedent. I can go on a Carswell service right now, click "words and phrases", type in just about anything, and I'll see what that word has been interpreted to mean in various contexts by judges, in some cases going back hundreds of years.
What the average person thinks sounds like plain English and makes sense to them might have a weird legal effect due to a line of cases that has affirmed and reaffirmed a particular definition for a word that has special importance in a particular industry context (insurance being an obvious example).