Legal documents have cross-references to annexes/addendums. In addition, some words used are defined in the definitions section.
For contracts, there is a customary order, you start with subject of the contract and end with force majeure, severability, term etc.
I don’t believe there is a hyperlinked inherent structure in legal documents. Skilled lawyers can of course draft a meaningful, concise document. But, I think that’s analogous to a skilled programmer writing clear and understandable code.
Most lawyers I know dread formatting and checking for cross-refs.
However, I think we do have one quality, we are used to subconsciously analyze sentences for ambiguities, double meanings, logical contradictions etc. Therefore, lawyers may use English in a way that would do the least harm (or most harm depending on which side they’re on :)).
If we figured out natural language processing or (even if very unlikely) switched our legal documents to an unambigious context-free language such as Lojban, lawyers’ jobs could be entirely automated.
I suspect that impressively structured legal documents stem from templates that have been perfected over the years by multiple lawyers, battle-tested by actual use.
That’s my impression being a junior associate and normally doing the grunt work of checking cross-refs and formatting contracts.
For contracts, there is a customary order, you start with subject of the contract and end with force majeure, severability, term etc.
I don’t believe there is a hyperlinked inherent structure in legal documents. Skilled lawyers can of course draft a meaningful, concise document. But, I think that’s analogous to a skilled programmer writing clear and understandable code.
Most lawyers I know dread formatting and checking for cross-refs.
However, I think we do have one quality, we are used to subconsciously analyze sentences for ambiguities, double meanings, logical contradictions etc. Therefore, lawyers may use English in a way that would do the least harm (or most harm depending on which side they’re on :)).
If we figured out natural language processing or (even if very unlikely) switched our legal documents to an unambigious context-free language such as Lojban, lawyers’ jobs could be entirely automated.
I suspect that impressively structured legal documents stem from templates that have been perfected over the years by multiple lawyers, battle-tested by actual use.
That’s my impression being a junior associate and normally doing the grunt work of checking cross-refs and formatting contracts.