Characteristics of Legal and Administrative Texts

Legal and administrative texts emanate from the three powers of a state's democracy: the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial.

Origin of Legal and Administrative Texts

Administrative texts are generated by diverse government agencies in relation to citizens or in their internal relations, such as certificates.

Legal texts are issued by the various organs of the administration of justice. They may be of a legal or judicial character.

• Legal texts (laws, decree-laws, etc.) emanate from the legislature.
• Judicial texts (claims, judgments) emanate from the judicial branch and represent the practical application of laws by the legal profession.

Communicative Aspects

The issuer of a legal-administrative text is often the public administration, parliament, etc., while the receiver is typically the body of citizens. The relationship between sender and receiver is often uneven and non-negotiable, with the transmitter holding a dominant position. Where the issuer is the citizen, they take a subordinate position to the receiver.

The channel is generally written.

The message, its methods and types, aligned with the intention behind legal and administrative texts, often takes an instructive or regulatory form, and may include argumentative elements.

Language Characteristics

Code and Style

Regarding the code or language, these texts have common requirements that determine the language used: objectivity or neutrality, which involves denotative language; precision or rigor; and economy or conciseness.

Structure

The structure of the text is typically rigid, adhering to fixed patterns.

Morphosyntactic Features

• Predominance of nominal constructions, often substituting for verbal ones.
• Abundant use of non-personal verb forms.
• Frequent use of subjunctive forms.
• Use of the archaic future subjunctive.
• Presence of many verbs in the passive voice.
• Abundance of impersonal constructions with "se".
• Profusion of periphrastic constructions (phrasal verbs) and prepositional phrases.
• Dominance of long sentences.

Lexical Features

• A stable and conservative vocabulary (tendency to incorporate terms of Latin origin).
• Use of archaisms and phraseological formulas (set phrases).
• Expressions and aphorisms in Latin.
• Technical terms.
• Use of words with specialized meanings distinct from standard language.
• Presence of pairs or trios of nouns, adjectives, or verbs with similar meanings.
• Profusion of acronyms and abbreviations; constant references to case law.