STYLE AND LANGUAGE IN WRITING LAWS. THE SITUATION OF THE ROMANIAN CIVIL CODE

Ramona Duminică

doi:10.32612/uw.27201643.2021.2.pp.7-18

Ramona Duminică

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.32612/uw.27201643.2021.2.pp.7-18

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Abstract

The debates on the drafting of laws in general and codes in particular are not recent but are an eternal topic of political and legal science, which is returning with increasing force. The same topic, but each time approached for different reasons and in different contexts, which gives it a permanent topicality. The current scientific approach addresses the traditional issue of rules regarding the style and language of drafting a normative act. The analysis does not claim an exhaustive study in the field, but represents a call for reflection, the purpose being mainly to analyze, 10 years after the entry into force of the new Romanian Civil Code, to what extent it manages to meet accessibility requirements and intelligibility. In order to be able to truly know an institution or a legal phenomenon, in order to be able to identify its vices and qualities, it is necessary to first clarify the concept itself and establish its foundations. Therefore, the first part of the study is devoted to the theoretical aspects related to legislation, codification and presentation of the rules on the style and language of normative acts. The second part of the study focuses on highlighting, by way of example, some legal norms in the current Civil Code whose intelligibility is questioned.

Highlights

Starting from the fact that a Civil Code represents one of the fundamental normative acts of any legal order and taking into account that it is a law that regulates the most important values of a society, such as family relations, patrimony, property, movement of goods, etc., it is necessary to be characterized by stability and accessibility.In order to ensure these objectives, it is necessary for the normative act to be drafted in a specific legal language, concise, sober, clear and precise style that excludes any ambiguity, with strict observance of grammatical and spelling rules.The clarity and precision of the normative style is achieved by the appropriate use of words in relation to their usual meaning and by the way they are arranged in sentences and phrases, with strict observance of grammatical rules
Such examples are found in the new Romanian Civil Code, and some of them are the subject of this study
Its essential attribution was to find coherent answers to essential questions aimed at how social, political, economic, etc. issues can be regulated through legal norms or how social reality can be influenced in a certain way through norms

Summary

Introduction

Starting from the fact that a Civil Code represents one of the fundamental normative acts of any legal order and taking into account that it is a law that regulates the most important values of a society, such as family relations, patrimony, property, movement of goods, etc., it is necessary to be characterized by stability and accessibility.In order to ensure these objectives, it is necessary for the normative act to be drafted in a specific legal language, concise, sober, clear and precise style that excludes any ambiguity, with strict observance of grammatical and spelling rules.The clarity and precision of the normative style is achieved by the appropriate use of words in relation to their usual meaning and by the way they are arranged in sentences and phrases, with strict observance of grammatical rules.

Results

Conclusion