"A substantially expanded version of Professor Martineau's Drafting legislation and rules in plain English"--P. v.

“This easy-to-follow guide is useful both as a general course of instruction and as a targeted aid in solving particular legal writing problems.” —Harvard Law Review Clear, concise, down-to-earth, and powerful—all too often, legal writing embodies none of these qualities. Its reputation for obscurity and needless legalese is widespread. For more than twenty years, Bryan A. Garner’s Legal Writing in Plain English has helped address this problem by providing lawyers, judges, paralegals, law students, and legal scholars with sound advice and practical tools for improving their written work. The leading guide to clear writing in the field, this indispensable volume encourages legal writers to challenge conventions and offers valuable insights into the writing process that will appeal to other professionals: how to organize ideas, create and refine prose, and improve editing skills. Accessible and witty, Legal Writing in Plain English draws on real-life writing samples that Garner has gathered through decades of teaching. Trenchant advice covers all types of legal materials, from analytical and persuasive writing to legal drafting, and the book’s principles are reinforced by sets of basic, intermediate, and advanced exercises in each section. In this new edition, Garner preserves the successful structure of the original while adjusting the content to make it even more classroom-friendly. He includes case examples from the past decade and addresses the widespread use of legal documents in electronic formats. His book remains the standard guide for producing the jargon-free language that clients demand and courts reward. “Those who are willing to approach the book systematically and to complete the exercises will see dramatic improvements in their writing.” —Law Library Journal

In the second edition of this highly regarded text, the authors show how and why traditional legal language has developed the peculiar characteristics that make legal documents inaccessible to the end users. Incorporating recent research and case law, the book provides a critical examination of case law and the rules of interpretation. Detailed case studies illustrate how obtuse or outdated words, phrases and concepts can be rewritten, reworked or removed altogether. Particularly useful is the step-by-step guide to drafting in the modern style, using examples from four types of common legal documents: leases, company constitutions, wills and conveyances. Readers will gain an appreciation of the historical influences on drafting practice and the use of legal terminology. They will learn about the current moves to reform legal language, and receive clear instruction on how to make their writing clearer and their legal documents more useful.

This book constitutes the first thorough academic analysis of legislative drafting. By placing the study of legislation and its principles within the paradigm of Flyvberg's phronetic social sciences, it offers a novel approach which breaks the tradition of unimaginative past descriptive reiterations of drafting conventions. Instead of prescribing rules for legislation, it sets out to identify efficacy as the main aim of the actors in the policy, legislative and drafting processes, and effectiveness as the main goal in the drafting of legislation. Through the prism of effectiveness as synonymous with legislative quality, the book explores the stages of the drafting process; guides the reader through structure and sections in their logical sequence, and introduces rules for drafting preliminary, substantive and final provisions. Special provisions, comparative legislative drafting and training for drafters complete this thorough analysis of the drafting of legislation as a tool for regulation. Instead of teaching the reader which drafting rules prevail, the book explores the reasons why drafting rules have come about, thus encouraging readers to understand what goal is served by each rule and how each rule applies. The book is aimed at academics and practitioners who draft or use statutory law in the common or civil law traditions.

Writing for Dollars, Writing to Please seeks to change public and legal writing--by making the ultimate case for plain language. The book gathers a large body of evidence for two related truths: using plain language can save businesses and government agencies a ton of money, and plain language serves and satisfies readers in every possible way. It also debunks the ten biggest myths about plain writing and looks back on 50 highlights in plain-language history. The first edition was described by reviewers as "powerful," "compelling," "inspiring," and "astounding." This second edition has been updated and expanded throughout. Professor Joseph Kimble is a leading international expert on this subject. Here is the book that sums up his important work, with a message that is vital to every government writer, business writer, and attorney.

Legislative Drafting Step-by-Step is a practical, step-by-step guide to drafting legislation. This "how to" book untangles the web of confusion and technical detail that surrounds legislative drafting and presents drafting in an easy-to-understand way. In so doing, legislative drafting is shown to be a fun, intellectually engaging endeavor and not an intimidating prospect to be dreaded. In short, this concise, user-friendly guide seeks to de-mystify legislative drafting. Legislative Drafting Step-by-Step includes the following: * A five-step framework for analysis to guide the drafter in converting any legislative proposal into an actual bill, resolution, or amendment. * Easy-to-learn rules to carry out each step of drafting. * More than 150 examples of draft legislative language. * 19 charts and tables illustrating the text. * 9 drafting exercises, together with the answers, to test drafting skills. * A description of the United States legislative process, as viewed by a legislative drafter. * 16 House and Senate bill, resolution, and amendment forms. Legislative Drafting Step-by-Step is designed to assist legislators, their staffs, and all who read or write legislation to better understand the basics of legislative drafting and the important role that well written legislation plays in promoting the rule of law. To this end, this guide may be used either as an essential reference tool for any office drafting legislation or as an introduction to legislative drafting for anyone seeking to learn the craft. Legislative Drafting Step-by-Step is copublished by the International Law Institute. "The people who are best at doing things are not always equally adept at explaining what they do and how they do it. That is why I am so pleased that we have Arthur Rynearson''s Legislative Drafting Step-by-Step to explain, carefully and lucidly, how bills and other legislative documents are drafted for consideration by Congress in Washington. This book should be required reading for every Representative and Senator, every congressional staffer involved in the legislative process, every lobbyist, and every lawyer and law student who is interested in public policy and how it is made. ...[A] careful reader will come to appreciate Mr. Rynearson''s enthusiasm for and pride in his chosen profession. ...What they also will come to appreciate is that there are so many serious and dedicated people like Mr. Rynearson who devote their professional lives to enabling our government to do what we want it to do." -- Dr. Stanley Bach (Amazon.com review) "Mr. Rynearson has produced a guide for the legislative drafter that is both concise and complete. It is very well organized and presents a very complicated subject as clearly and directly as possible. Throughout the book, Mr. Rynearson has included drafting problems that are perfectly conceived to test the reader''s understanding of each of the teaching points presented. And he very thoughtfully provides answers for the exercises at the end of the book. The book concludes with a series of appendices that should be very helpful to the aspiring drafter. All-in-all, Legislative Drafting Step-by-Step is a highly readable and useful introduction to the art of legislative drafting, but it would also serve well as an excellent refresher course for the experienced drafter." -- Francis L. ("Frank") Burk, Jr., Legislative Counsel of the United States Senate, 1991-1999, and currently self-employed as a legislative drafting consultant "Arthur Rynearson''s quarter century career as legislative draftsman, ultimately as Deputy Legislative Counsel of the United States Senate, enables him to draw on the experience of drafting literally thousands of legislative instruments for the US Senate. [...] There is a very detailed table of contents, a useful index and more than 50 pages of exercises (and answers!). To conclude: it has been an almost unadulterated pleasure to read this book. I heartily recommend it." -- Don Wallace, Jr., Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center, and Chairman, International law Institute

This book tells what the language of the law is, how it got that way and how it works out in the practice. The emphasis is more historical than philosophical, more practical than pedantic.