4 NOVEMBER 1932, Page 17

LEGAL PHRASEOLOGY

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—The letter from Mr. Alfred Fellows in your issue of October 29th is on a subject of vital importance to the British public as it deals with an example of an injustice done through the framing of Acts in ambiguous language. The blame for this does not so much rest with the members of Parliament who pass these Bills as with the framer of the Bill. This is done by an eminent and learned member of the legal profession and the legislators who pass the Bill do so with the pious hope that the phraseology used by the Crown Attorney (or whoever the authority may be) is in the correct legal form.

During the nine years I served on the Federal Council of the Leeward Islands we passed innumerable Bills drawn in language which -rio4 One pretended to understand, but which we were assured were in the correct legal phraseology. One Bill I remember was on the point of being passed when a more venturesome spirit remarked the language could not be correct as it stated "The label must be inserted on the bottle," and it was only after much discussion that the eminent and learned framer of the Bill would admit that the

wording was inadmissible.—I am, Sir, &c., - The Croft, Ash Green, Surrey. -

G. W. PENRICE.