Awareness and Appreciation are critical values in DEI – Special Edition
Awareness and appreciation of DEI and its value are critical steps, but these are hard to grapple with in any traditionally structured profession. Especially, the legal profession has a hierarchical legacy with progeny promotion being the norm.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) are distinct concepts that come together to create a thriving workplace. Diversity recognises and values differences in people – be it gender, geography, religion, race, or the additional element of caste in our country. Equity provides impartial, fair opportunities to all individuals, and inclusion helps create a workplace that makes people feel a sense of belonging. Although most promising attorneys today seek firms promoting DEI, one must admit that DEI in the Indian legal industry is yet to receive due attention. The profession has vast differences – from the perceived standing of law colleges, opportunities for growth, and economic and income inequalities to gender imbalance.
Entire Supplement ↓
Article by Jyoti Sagar ↓
Ipso facto words – India needs to simplify the ‘language of the law’
To non-lawyers “motion” means “movement or process of moving”; to us it means “application to a court”. To non-lawyers “said” means the past and past participle of “say”; it is an adjective for us – for example, the “said” building.
A genteel old lady who met me for some legal advice asked why we lawyers write in a strange way. She was stumped by “in witness whereof, I have set my hand hereto…”. She asked me if there were substitute words for hereof, thereof, inter alia, and of other strange words that she could not understand. And then she asked – why is it that in an agreement a “party of the first part” did something or the other to someone known as “party of the second part”.
The old lady is not alone. Over centuries the “language of the law” has been subject matter of criticism and jokes. Jonathan Swift in Gulliver’s Travels (1726) wrote of a society of lawyers who spoke in “peculiar cant and jargon of their own, that no other mortal can understand”. Thomas Jefferson complained in 1817 that in drafting statutes his fellow lawyers had the habit of “making every other word a ‘said’ or ‘aforesaid’ and saying everything over two or three times, so that nobody but we of the craft can untwist the diction and find out what it means”.
For India and other countries, an IP waiver is a distraction
For India and other countries, an IP waiver is a distraction not a solution to the covid-19 vaccine crisis
Drawn-out discussions about a covid-related TRIPs suspension will not help the huge numbers of people in India and elsewhere waiting for vaccines, argue Deepa Tiku and Jyoti Sagar of K&S Partners
As the world wades through the second year of the deadliest pandemic in living memory, we are all fighting a common invisible enemy: the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2.
Coming to humanity’s rescue, scientists from around the world have worked round the clock to develop, within an unprecedented timeline, several vaccines to battle the virus. According to data published by the WHO, a total of 102 novel coronavirus vaccine candidates are under clinical development and another 185 are in pre-clinical development. Many vaccines have already been deployed around the world and the latest statistics available from ourworldindata.org indicate that more than 2 billion people have already been vaccinated. This is no mean feat in such a short time.
Yet, there is a glaring gap in the vaccinated populations between the developed world and the rest. While the United States has inoculated more than 65% of its citizens, some of the least developed countries (LDCs) have yet to begin their vaccination programmes.
This brings to fore the raging debate on vaccine inequity, and rightly so. After all, how can anyone be safe until everyone is safe?
Language and Law: The Incomprehensible Lawyer – Part I
Language is the most significant medium of communication. Other than “sign” language and “body” language, “language” is made of “words” that are used for oral and written communication. The main purpose of communication is to convey information and ideas.
As lawyers, we spend a large part of our time crafting, articulating, and delivering end products which are made up of words. Charles Alan Wright, a leading authority on legal procedures and practice of law, said,
“The only tool of the lawyer is words. Whether we are trying a case, writing a brief, drafting a contract, or negotiating with an adversary, words are the only things we have to work with.”
Language of the Law
The two most significant exports from England are the English language and common law. English is the most popular global language. Common law is the most prevalent foundational law in countries which were colonies of the British Empire. English as the “language of the law” evolved over centuries.
For plain English, not gobbledygook – Commentary
he Supreme Court of India has referred a judgment of the Himachal Pradesh High Court back to the court on the ground that it is incomprehensible.
In support of this description, Justices D Y Chandrachud and M R Shah quoted three paragraphs from the high court judgment. A painstaking reading of the quoted text reveals letters of the normal English alphabet arranged to form English syllables, some Latin words favoured by judges, a profusion of commas and missing sense.
Language and Law: The Incomprehensible Lawyer – Part 2
The first part of this article described the peculiarities of the language of the law. In this concluding part, we cover the fascinating history of the lawyers’ language, why the legal profession persists with its language even though the English language for the rest of the world has changed from the middle ages and evolved, and the green shoots of change.
The characteristics and manner of composition of the language of the law are founded in antiquity. It is also an intended (or unintended) result of developments in political, societal, and technological spheres. Here are some examples: