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In earlier chapters we have discussed the many benefits of drafting legal documents in modern, standard English. In this final chapter we give step-by-step examples of drafting in the modern style. We illustrate with clauses drawn from four types of private legal documents, all commonly encountered in legal practice: leases, company constitutions, wills and conveyances.
Lease: how to bring it to an end if the property is damaged
Original version
If the whole or a substantial part of the Premises shall at any time during the Term be destroyed or damaged then the Landlord shall have the right at any time before rebuilding or reinstatement shall have commenced to give notice in writing to the Tenant to determine this Lease and at the expiry of one month from the service of such notice the Term shall cease and determine but without prejudice to any claim for any antecedent breach of the Tenant's covenants herein contained (and if the tenancy is one to which Part II of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 applies then a statutory notice in the form required by that Act shall also operate as notice under this sub-clause).
This clause exudes many characteristics of traditional legal writing:
use of shall
unusual tenses: ‘shall have commenced’
use of capital letters to indicate defined terms: ‘the Term’, ‘this Lease’
unnecessary doublets: ‘destroyed or damaged’, ‘rebuilding or reinstatement’, ‘cease and determine’
lack of punctuation
‘such’ used as an adjective
unusual word order: ‘herein contained’
avoidance of pronouns
pomposity: ‘commenced’, ‘determine’, ‘antecedent’
special meaning for words in ordinary use: ‘determine’
[…]
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