Lexical and Grammatical Features of Legal English: Evidence from Economic Crimes Discourse

Abstract

In the context of an increasingly globalized economy, economic crimes have been growing both in scale and complexity, posing serious threats to the financial stability of individuals, organizations, and states. To address this reality, legal systems have been continuously improved with stricter regulations and severe sanctions to control and handle fraudulent activities, tax evasion, money laundering, and other financial violations. However, due to the complexity of this field, legal English used in documents concerning economic crimes requires a high level of accuracy, coherence, and applicability. This article analyzes several lexical and grammatical features of legal English, specifically the use of Latinisms, binomials and trinomials, passive voice, and reduced relative clauses. The study aims to clarify how these linguistic elements contribute to the clear, objective, and effective expression of legal provisions.