Comprehensibility of Legal Language: A Case Study of the Supreme Court Finance Act 2023 Ruling in Kenya

Abstract

In recent years, public interest in the understanding of judgments and rulings pronounced by courts has been on the rise. On the other hand, complicated legal expressions have long been a subject of complaints, as they impede access to justice and, worse still, access to information by ordinary people. It is in this context that this study assessed the comprehensibility of the legal language used in the Supreme Court of Kenya's Ruling on the Finance Act 2023.

The study sought to assess the readability of the ruling using the Flesch Reading Ease Score, identify linguistic features contributing to the complexity of the ruling, and propose recommendations for simplifying legal language without compromising accuracy. The study was guided by Cognitive Load Theory and Plain Language Theory. According to Cognitive Load Theory, comprehension is hampered when intrinsic and extraneous cognitive loads become too heavy. In contrast, Plain Language Theory advocates clarity and simplicity to make written texts accessible to all categories of readers.

The study employed both qualitative and quantitative research designs. Qualitative analysis examined linguistic features such as long sentences and technical legal terminology, while quantitative analysis applied several readability metrics to five sample extracts from the judgment to provide empirical evidence of the challenge. Data collection involved clause-by-clause textual analysis of the ruling, and findings were cross-referenced against established readability indices for accuracy.

The results revealed that the judgment contained very long and complex sentence structures, sometimes comprising as many as three clauses within a single sentence. The ruling also included numerous highly technical legal terms. These factors contributed to extremely low readability scores. For example, the Flesch Reading Ease Scores ranged between -125.18 and -1.56, indicating that the text would be difficult for a lay audience to understand.

The study therefore recommended simplifying sentence structures, using plain language, and defining technical and foreign terms. It concluded that implementing these recommendations would reduce the complexity of legal language and improve the comprehensibility of legal texts for the general public.