Análise crítica da simplificação da linguagem jurídica: entre a acessibilidade e precisão

Abstract

It is well known that legal language is full of its own definitions and concepts, articulated by legal practitioners in their most diverse forms of communication. The hermetic and traditional language, full of Latin expressions and elaborate language, is criticized for its incomprehension by laypeople, who seek the judiciary as a source of access to information for knowledge of the interpretation of the law applied by the various judicial instances. In this path, seeking to bring the subject of jurisdiction closer to the judiciary, measures were implemented to simplify the legal language applied in sentences, rulings and other acts issued by this power, so that citizens can access justice. The challenge posed seeks to balance technical language and “legalese”, a neologism that expresses the classification of legal language as a separate language, alluding to the suffix of the language “Portuguese”, so that the message transmitted is clear and understandable by the subject of jurisdiction. However, legal language cannot be considered the sole obstacle to citizens' access to justice. We need to go further. This article aims to analyze the characteristics and functions of the legal language built over time, the technical relevance of concepts and institutes for Law, as well as the paradigm shift of legal communication to make it more accessible to the lay public. It also seeks to identify the challenges and risks of oversimplification, such as reduced technical precision, potential compromise of legal guarantees, risks of inappropriate interpretation and legal uncertainty, as well as to propose solutions to make legal language more accessible and effective, without sacrificing technicality. The methodology applied was qualitative research with bibliographic analysis of works on legal language and its simplification.