2023年经济学人 让人头疼的法律术语(1)

 

    “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers,” is one of Shakespeare’s most memorable¹ lines.

    “我们所为最要紧之事，乃是干掉所有律师。”这是莎士比亚最令人难忘的诗句之一。

    You would struggle to find such a line in the writings of lawyers themselves—and not just because they would, presumably, disagree.

    你很难在律师们自己的著作中找到这样的句子——不仅仅是因为他们可能不同意。

    Though some judges are sophisticated stylists, most legal language is fussy², tangled³ and incapable⁴ of producing anything so pithy⁵.

    尽管有些法官是老练的文体家，但大多数法律语言都是繁琐、纠结的，他们无法写出如此精辟的内容。

    (This is no doubt one reason so many people want to kill all the lawyers.)(这无疑是许多人想干掉所有律师的原因之一。)But do lawyers write that way to impress, to bewilder—or perhaps because they must?

    但律师们这样写是为了给人留下深刻印象，还是为了迷惑人——或者是因为他们必须这样写吗?

    In a study published in Proceedings⁶ of the National Academy of Sciences, Eric Martinez and his colleagues from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Edinburgh tried to find out.

    在《美国国家科学院院刊》上发表的一项研究中，来自麻省理工学院和爱丁堡大学的埃里克·马丁内斯和他的同事们试图找到答案。

    Contracts written in “legalese”, as well as simplified versions conveying identical concepts, were shown to American lawyers and laypeople.

    用“法律术语”书写的合同，以及表达相同概念的简化版本，都被展示给了美国律师和外行。

    It turns out that lawyers struggle with, and dislike, legal language almost as much as their clients.

    事实证明，律师和他们的客户一样，对法律语言感到纠结和厌恶。

    Legalese is heavy on “centre-embedding”, sentences in which related words are separated by a long insertion,法律用语偏重于“中心嵌入”，在句子中，相关的单词被一个很长的插入语分隔开，as in “It is understood by artist and company that comprehensive liability insurance, protecting against any claim or demand up to $300,000, including attorney’s fees, related to company’s actions under this venue⁷ agreement, shall be purchased and maintained throughout the agreement by company.”

    如“艺人和公司达成共识，公司应购买并在整个协议期间维护全面责任保险，以避免任何高达30万美元的索赔，包括律师费。”

    This puts a heavy strain on the brain’s working memory.

    这给大脑运作的记忆力带来了沉重的压力。

    The word “insurance” must be held in the mind while some 20 other words go by before its attendant verb phrase “shall be purchased” arrives.

    “保险”这个词必须在脑海中记住，而在它的动词短语“应该购买”出现之前，还有大约20个其他单词。

    Another baleful feature of legal writing is jargon⁸: uncommon⁹ words like hereinbefore, mala fides and lessor.

    另一个法律写作令人讨厌的特点是行话：不常见的词，如“上文”、“恶意”和“出租人”。

    These mean little more than above, bad faith and landlord.

    这些词汇的意思仅仅是：上面所说的，不诚实和地主。

    Even if most lawyers and many laypeople know the jargon, the words require more effort to recall than everyday ones.

    即使大多数律师和许多外行都知道这些行话，记住这些词也会比记日常用语耗费更多的努力。

1 memorable   

adj.值得回忆的，难忘的，特别的，显著的

参考例句：

• This was indeed the most memorable day of my life.这的确是我一生中最值得怀念的日子。
• The veteran soldier has fought many memorable battles.这个老兵参加过许多难忘的战斗。

2 fussy   

adj.为琐事担忧的，过分装饰的，爱挑剔的

参考例句：

• He is fussy about the way his food's cooked.他过分计较食物的烹调。
• The little girl dislikes her fussy parents.小女孩讨厌她那过分操心的父母。

3 tangled   

adj. 纠缠的，紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• Your hair's so tangled that I can't comb it. 你的头发太乱了，我梳不动。
• A movement caught his eye in the tangled undergrowth. 乱灌木丛里的晃动引起了他的注意。

4 incapable   

adj.无能力的，不能做某事的

参考例句：

• He would be incapable of committing such a cruel deed.他不会做出这么残忍的事。
• Computers are incapable of creative thought.计算机不会创造性地思维。

5 pithy   

adj.(讲话或文章)简练的

参考例句：

• Many of them made a point of praising the film's pithy dialogue.他们中很多人特别赞扬了影片精炼的对白。
• His pithy comments knocked the bottom out of my argument.他精辟的评论驳倒了我的论点。

6 proceedings   

n.进程，过程，议程；诉讼(程序)；公报

参考例句：

• He was released on bail pending committal proceedings. 他交保获释正在候审。
• to initiate legal proceedings against sb 对某人提起诉讼

7 venue   

n.犯罪地点，审判地，管辖地，发生地点，集合地点

参考例句：

• The hall provided a venue for weddings and other functions.大厅给婚礼和其他社会活动提供了场所。
• The chosen venue caused great controversy among the people.人们就审判地点的问题产生了极大的争议。

8 jargon   

n.术语，行话

参考例句：

• They will not hear critics with their horrible jargon.他们不愿意听到评论家们那些可怕的行话。
• It is important not to be overawed by the mathematical jargon.要紧的是不要被数学的术语所吓倒.

9 uncommon   

adj.罕见的，非凡的，不平常的

参考例句：

• Such attitudes were not at all uncommon thirty years ago.这些看法在30年前很常见。
• Phil has uncommon intelligence.菲尔智力超群。