The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1908-01-18
ILLEGAL PHYSIOLOGY"

When an ordinarily intelligent man r1ispro.
nounces word or wrong word in conversa-
ton, there is possibility that some one NAV smile
When an ordinarily intelligent man misspes a
word or uses wrong word in writing, his readers
wonder at the ignorance of the writer But when
an ordinarily intelligent is elected to the egis
lature. to make laws to guide ard govern the peo-
pc of sovereign state. his bills are porp2tuntad in
the statutes of that state, and hencaforth end for
ever they go laundering down the corridors Of
time. furnishing courts and lawyers with termi.
nology all their own, constant misuse of the word
finally making those bulls good legal phraseol 1gy
In the statutes of the American states there is
certain ill-defned and chaotic meaning attaching
to the verbosity which laws need to make then
Intangible, certain ungrammatica vagueness
together with pretentiousness which renders them
all too ponderous for the layman to translate The
best laws are those which leave everything in q
haze and the best lawyers are those whose subtle
training enables them to pick the flaw and prove
the whole thing unconstitutional or contrary to
public. policy.
Legislatures are made up mostly of ordinary
men. Most members have active minds. and we
believe most of them have a clear perception of
the intention of their bills But in reducing their
ideas to words that intention is very often lost by
lack of facility of expression. or is buried IN
mass of eccentric legal phraseology which renders
the thought as. phantomlike as will O. the wisp.
There seems to be meaning lurking behind the
words, but it is so subty concealed in the labyrinth
ian and frequently ungrammatical construction of
the sentences that the judicial minds of the
highest courts of the land have been perpleXed
The courts have held that some laws should be
literally construed; others must be strictly con-
strued Just how the distinction between the two
classes is made is as hard to understand as are the
statutes. But no doubt long judicial training has
developed the perceptive qualities of the bench ln
til they outweigh the reflective and imaginative.
A long time ago some legislator made the word
Z llened, and used it for 'aenated" Aliened IS |
now good legal phraseology 1t was a legislator
who gave the governor power to convene the
legislature in extra session, though the governor
has consistently "convoked" that body when occa
sion demanded. 1t was legislator who provided |
for scholarships for pupils of ability when he
meant pupils of capacity. He it was too, who re-
CURED men to reply to questions rather than an
swer them And he has made an Indian an alb
Driglnee whereas he is one of the aboriginees.
Alien citizen" is one of his choicest specimens
Insofar as" may have been borrowed for special
use in the statutes, and it is probably good legal
9hraseology. There is, of course, no authority on
'arth to defend insofar" as one word, but the
whole expression would be much improved by sim
ply saying that one part of law is applicable so
ar as" not consistent with another The "inn is
ntirey superfluous.
Some remedy should be devised RI ,,rovor,+ ~ :
ndiscriminate addition to good law terms" of the
many freak words and expressions which come into