Originally posted by Palynka
Your legalist view is a constraint because you limit yourself to that type of language. It's a pity, though. I thought this could have been interesting, but like this we hit a barrier that you can't or won't cross.
no1 falls under the same mistake of being severely constrained by his Law education. I wonder how common a phenomenon that is...
I do not understand how a legal education is a constraint. I am not the captive of legal jargon -- I recognize legal gibberish when I see it. For example, the standard form mortgage in most states in the USA appears to be in outline form. It isn't. I once converted such a form into a word processing document and attempted to reformat it in proper outline form. I discovered the various headings, roman numerals, etc. were entirely arbitrary. The mortgage form, like a lot of things, developed over time by accretion. It was custom and usage that made it so.
I don't have a "legalist" view -- that is a truly silly assumption on your part. The nature of training for the bar is to learn how to analyze words and their uses within the context in which they appear. Only then can one formulate arguments in favor or against them. It is a constant that one must discern what the issues are. The questions presented must be identified before one can formulate an answer. Some of this concerns matters of fact -- and things are either the case or they are not. Some of this, however, concerns matters of law -- and that is a far more complicated thing derived from different sources that, together, can be advanced as authority to support one's propositions.
The language of law is language, not jargon, not legal terminology. Even when legal terminology comes into play, there is still the need to reach consensus or agreement with the other side in a dispute on what the terms mean in the context of the dispute itself. Just because one ordinarily uses a Force Majeure clause does not give rise to an inflexible definition that provides a universal and always applicable definition for that term of Art. It can be fashioned to address only the facts presented, or the matter at hand.
To assume from some law dictionary or any dictionary what the terms of a contract mean, for example, is to commit malpractice. You have to know that what you mean by a word, a term, or a provision in a contract, is the same thing that the other side understands these things to mean. Else serious adverse consequences can follow.
For example, I have participated in a dispute with another government agency that has lasted at least 14 years over what a particular statutory provision means. The upshot of that determines who decides how hundreds of millions of dollars will be spent and under whose direction and control.
As the subject of that spending is a scientific and technical matter as well as a legal one, matters of fact, mathematical models, risk analyzes, health assessments, and many other technical issues come into play.
To assume, blithely, that a "legalist" view constrains one, disabling one from dealing with these technical, scientific and factual matters, is the very height of foolishness and naivete.