Features of the language of law: A comparative study of Polish, English and Indonesian legal texts

Abstract

Abstract Researchers studying the language of law agree that there is a number of certain features which are characteristic of the legal genre, regardless of the language of the legal text. Among the most commonly listed features of lingua legis are: conventionalised sentences, performative verbs, Latinisms, euphemisms, and time expressions. The paper provides a discussion of these features, as well as provides examples of their occurrence in Polish, English, and Indonesian legal texts. The analised corpus includes the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia, the Constitution of the Republic of Poland, The Constitution of the United States of America with amendments, Polish and Indonesian Civil Codes (clauses concerning obligations), together with a set of parallel texts of rental agreements and real estate sale contracts.