DIREITO, LINGUAGEM E PODER: O JURIDIQUÊS COMO ARAME FARPADO DO ACESSO À JUSTIÇA

Abstract

This article studies the relationship between law, language and power, specifying the practice of "legalese" in the legal field. This "style" of legal writing, taken here as "legalese", has acted as barbed wire in access to justice, so it is aimed, particularly, to list alternatives and practices for its abolition. As a theoretical-methodological apparatus, studies from the fields of Linguistics, Sociology, Anthropology and Law are mobilized. Based on this, a discussion on legal writing, law and power is presented; the institutional proposals for the simplification of the legal language are listed; and, finally, there is a practice of "intralingual translation" – translation into the same language – and commentary on a judgment produced within the scope of the Court of Justice of São Paulo. Without renouncing the rigor and technical precision of the area, the results reveal that the alternatives to the issue go through the simplification of the legal language, that is, they go through the abolition of the "legalese", which will result in a simple, clear, objective and efficient writing; establishing a direct connection between the Law and the demands and needs of society in general. This means producing a legal writing considering the different socio-cultural realities, in order to allow Justice to be effectively accessible to all.