Today, transparency and clarity are an integral part of law, which was not the case 10 years ago. Practices have evolved, particularly in terms of drafting and translation. Are you familiar with the cognitive concept of Legal Design? Let's take a closer look at its definition and its advantages for legal translation professionals.
Legal design, also known as “clear legal language”, has its origins in design thinking. This approach, developed in the United States, focuses on problem solving by and for the user. In the early 2000s, it was extended to services, including the legal sector.
In 2013, it was formalized by Margaret Hagan at Stanford University, and then spread more widely. Legal translators who translate from English into French must therefore train to adapt to the new requirements of American legal writing.
Technical vocabulary, rigid structures, endless sentences... The law is rightly perceived as complex to understand and translate. Legal Design can therefore be defined as an innovative approach to making legal texts accessible and comprehensible to all.
It is based on the principles of cognitive ergonomics and language simplification. It combines law, design and visual communication to make legal information clear and engaging.
To improve comprehension of legal texts, it's essential to use clear language, avoiding unnecessary jargon and favoring short, structured sentences.
The structuring of information plays a key role, with headings and subheadings and the use of lists to facilitate reading. It also relies on the integration of visual elements such as infographics, diagrams and icons to illustrate complex concepts and guide the reader.
Page layout must also be intuitive, with legible typography and appropriate spacing to avoid blocky text.
In this sense, Legal Design is a design process, a methodology with steps to achieve a given objective, much more than a simple aesthetic imperative.
Legal Design improves accessibility for all audiences, saves time in understanding legal documents and facilitates more effective communication between legal professionals and their clients.
It's not a matter of simplifying the law, but of providing a more intuitive way of presenting and communicating it. As such, it is an essential lever for democratizing access to legal information.
This approach ensures that the recipients of these documents give their free and informed consent in accordance with legal requirements.
This is why many companies, such as Décathlon, BNP, Huawei and Auchan, now use this clear legal language in their legal translations.