Descripción
Sumario:Legal language as a required course. -- Abstract: Many professors complain about the way Law students write, ignoring the fact that teaching to read and write begins in elementary school, continues in high school but has to be fully developed at Law School. The latter carries the responsibility of preparing future professionals for their careers. Traditionally, the two main approaches to reading and writing legal documents have been: 1) an initial course where language specialists teach specific tools for reading and writing that are common in different disciplines, and 2) legal reading and writing could be taught in every class in texts relating to that particular area. In this essay we propose a third way to teach legal reading and writing. Legal language should be included as a mandatory course in order to give students the specific tools for drafting legal texts that communicate messages clearly, both for lawyers and the general public.