"Law is a means of communication": St Petersburg University aims to make Russian law understandable for citizens

The meeting was moderated by Yelena Mizulina, member of the Federation Council Committee on Constitutional Legislation and State Building. She noted that today’s laws are very difficult for citizens to understand, and this is why people avoid reading such texts. According to Yelena Mizulina, a lack of understanding of the law is tantamount to ignorance. Citizens are not aware of the consequences of their actions and of the degree of liability, they are unaware of the legal implications of their actions. Moreover, without knowing the law, they cannot exercise their rights.

Sergei Belov noted that the complexity of laws has increased manifold over the past 15 years. Even professional lawyers have difficulty interpreting new legal texts because of their complexity and intricate wording. When drafting new legal texts and amending old ones it is important to remember that the law is a means of communication, said the expert. You need to be conscious of the addressee of the legal text, of who is to read and interpret it. ’We will never know if the law is understood if we do not consider the audience and their language competencies,’ said Sergei Belov.

Our research shows that a person with no experience of working with legal documents, when reading the legal text for the first time, will be guided by their everyday, non-legal experience of interpreting it, that is, they will not identify the words as legal terms.

Sergei Belov, Dean of the Faculty of Law and Director of the Research Institute for the State Language at St Petersburg University

Sergei Belov cited the word ’property’ as an example: ’If we open any dictionary, the Ozhegov dictionary or more modern dictionaries, we will see definitions which are very different from those in civil law. Some dictionaries define only disposal of property, others only possession, whereas the triad of powers, i.e. use, possession and disposal, which for any lawyer is the alpha and omega of the concept of property, is rarely mentioned in dictionaries of everyday language.’

The participants in the hearings agreed that a list of terms with interpretations could make the texts of the laws easier to read. Sergei Belov emphasised that St Petersburg University had taken the initiative to establish terminology committees under relevant ministries, which could work on drafting special glossaries for specific areas of public administration. They could also be helpful in the legislative process.

The Research Institute for the State Language of St Petersburg University was established in 2015. The Institute’s activities include a comprehensive analysis of the Russian language used in the spheres where the official state language is mandatory, in particular in legislative acts. They also examine the interpretation of these documents by the professional community and ordinary citizens.

Experts from St Petersburg University took part in drafting a model law on normative legal acts for the CIS, which was adopted by the Interparliamentary Assembly of Member Nations of the Commonwealth of Independent States in 2019. This model law stipulates that the text of a normative legal act must be easy to understand, not only for law practitioners, but for all citizens. It should be clear and explicit about the content of the normative provisions to exclude multiple interpretations. The meeting participants were of the opinion that this experience could also be applied in Russia. In the course of the expert discussion, it was decided to establish a working group to develop draft laws on "statutory regulations" and on the "federal legislative process". The participants in the hearings also agreed that the terminology of the legislation needed to be harmonised.

The experts further suggested adapting the legal language for the public and creating publicly accessible information resources to help citizens without a legal background understand the legal language.

The development of a computer programme that can automatically assess the level of difficulty of the draft text while it is being prepared is another possible step. Experts suggest that the results of such an electronic assessment could be used as a support tool in the process of drafting legislation.

The Federation Council also proposed that the Ministry of Science and Higher Education consider revising the federal state educational standard for jurisprudence by introducing the mandatory study of the fundamentals of linguistics. The participants further suggested that applicants should be given the opportunity to choose specialised training to prepare early career specialists for work in government agencies and participate in rulemaking.