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Modern legal English is based on standard English. However, it contains a number of unusual features. These largely relate to terminology, linguistic structure, linguistic conventions, and punctuation, and have their roots in the history of the development of English as a legal language.
Following the Norman invasion of England in 1066, Anglo-Norman French became the official language of legal proceedings in England for a period of nearly 300 years. Consequently, many words in common use in modern legal English are derived from what evolved into Law French. These include property, estate, chattel, lease, executor, and tenant. The use of Law French during this period has an enduring influence on the general linguistic register of modern legal English. It also accounts for some of the complex linguistic structures employed in legal writing.
During the period mentioned above, Latin remained the language of formal records and statutes. However, since only the learned were fluent in Latin, it never became the language of legal pleading or debate. The influence of Latin can be seen in a number of words and phrases such as ad hoc, de facto, bona fide, inter alia, and ultra vires , which remain in current use in legal writing.
In 1356, the Statute of Pleading was enacted, which stated that all legal proceedings should be conducted in English (but recorded in Latin).
Also, the system of law inherited by the English-speaking nations, the common law, is based on tradition, and, for the most part of its history, was never written down, and still, to some extent, remains uncodified. Another consideration is that the fundamental law of the two major powers of the English speaking world, the United Kingdom and the United States, was established long before the fundamental laws of most civil law nations, and therefore, many documents of present legal importance were written in archaic English. Further, legal English is useful for its dramatic effect, to scare those non-lawyers uninitiated into legal circles: for example, a subpoena compelling a witness to appear in court often ends with the archaic threat "Fail not, at your peril"--what the "peril" is isn't described (being arrested and held in contempt of court) but the formality of the language tends to better put a chill down the spine of the recipient of the subpoena than a simple statement like "We can arrest you if you don't show up."
David Crystal (2004) explains a stylistic influence upon English legal language. During the Medieval period lawyers used a mixture of Latin, French and English. To avoid ambiguity lawyers often offered pairs of words from different languages. Sometimes there was little ambiguity to resolve and the pairs merely gave greater emphasis, becoming a stylistic habit. This is a feature of legal style that continues to the present day. Examples of mixed language doublets are: "breaking and entering" (English/French), "fit and proper" (English/French), "lands and tenements" (English/French), "will and testament" (English/Latin). Examples of English only doublets are: "let and hindrance", "have and hold."
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