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согласен, авторам надо писать простые предложения, исключающие разные толкования (на эту тему существует целая литература), хотя, конечно, буквы "t" и "r" рядом на клаве, промахнуться легко, а спеллчекер тут не поможет... • 1842: "[Most legal documents can be written] in the common popular structure of plain English."1
•1887: "(Good drafting] says in the plainest language, with the simplest, fewest, and fittest words, precisely what it means."2
• 1902: "Latin words and, where possible without a sacrifice of accuracy, technical phraseology should be avoided; the word best adapted to express a thought in ordinary composition will generally be found to be the best that can be used . . . ."3
• 1938: "The simplest English is the best for legislation. Sentences should be short. Long words should be avoided. Do not use one word more than is necessary to make the meaning clear. The draftsman should bear in mind that his Act is supposed to be read and understood by the plain man."4
• 1976: "[M]ore often than might be expected, [the lawyer's]. . . duty to be complete and exact will require only short and ordinary words, and short, or at least simple, sentences. The language of lawyers need not, as Coode remarked of the statutes, be 'intricate and barbarous.""
• 1988: "The most competent version of language and legal drafting. . . is that version which enables the message to be grasped readily, without difficulty and confusion. This is none other than plain language— language which gets its message across in a straightforward, unentan-gled way, that lets the message stand out clearly and does not enshroud or enmesh it in convolution or prolixity."6
• 1996: "From the draftsman's point of view, complexity intensifies the risk of error in the drafting and the risk of different interpretations in the leading: both chum for litigators. The commercial attorney, therefore, must work to achieve a result as simple as possible."7
• 1997: "[P|lain language and precision are complementary goals, not antagonists. The choice between clarity and precision is usually a false choice. ... If anything, plain language is more precise than traditional legal writing because it uncovers the ambiguities and errors that traditional style, with all its excesses, tends to hide." There's a related point here. Drafters often lapse into the poor habit of addressing their provisions directly to someone other than the reader for whom the document is ostensibly written.
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