Have you ever watched a legal drama and found yourself wondering what everyone’s talking about? On TV or in movies, it might not be that important to know what everything means — but it’s different if you’re really living through a legal drama. 【小题1】

In fact, it matters so much that steps are being taken in some English-speaking countries to make legal language simpler. 【小题2】 In March 2023, the Colorado Politics website reported that a local judge had begun adding simple explanations to her decisions to make them easier to understand when people who didn’t have lawyers were representing themselves in court. This is often known as writing in “plain (简单的) language”, or “plain English”.

【小题3】 Set up in 1983, an international organization called Clarity encourages the use of plain language in legal documents. Clarity says it wants to give power back to people by allowing them to understand things that may be important to them.

As plain language supporters say, it’s a matter of equality: making sure everyone has easy access to information, whatever their educational background — or whether they speak English as a second language. 【小题4】 It even has laws explaining when plain language must be used in things like government documents. The US and New Zealand have also introduced laws designed to encourage clear language and reduce jargon (术语).

【小题5】 They argue that plain language can be less proper than legal vocabulary. But for many others, the use of plain language — even along with a more difficult text — has a great many advantages. For example, we can get plain language subtitles (字幕) on our favorite legal dramas.