Tanner, Edwin (2004) Clear, Simple and Precise Legislative Drafting: Australian Guidelines Explicated Using an EC Directive. Statute Law Review, 25 (3). pp. 223-250. ISSN 0144-3593

Abstract

In Modern Legal Drafting (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge: 2001) Peter Butt and Richard Castle offer a set of practical guidelines for writing in ‘clearer language’. They do not provide a method for the precise interpretation and linguistic analysis of the writing of others. They avoid the nomenclature of traditional grammar. This article provides a linguistic analysis of the grammar behind Butt and Castle’s guidelines. Examples from Directive 2002/2/EC are used to explicate and validate those guidelines. In a subsequent article, the expanded guidelines will be used to assess whether Directive 2002/2/EC is expressed ‘clearly, simply and precisely’.

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