The language of legislation

The characteristics of the language of legislation are derived from its role in the institution of law. An analysis of the institutional context reveals links among history, social function, participant roles, accepted goals of legislation, and language use. The nature of an Act of Parliament as a perpetual speech act creates a frozen authoritative text so that the language itself becomes a component of the law. If legislation is to be both stable and flexible, institutional communicative strategies are required to organise linguistic means to these sociolinguistic ends.