Flutterby™! : Laws as magic spells

I have a strong feeling that this is old news, and there's plenty of research before this on the topic, but MIT study explains why laws are written in an incomprehensible style

The convoluted “legalese” used in legal documents conveys a special sense of authority, and even non-lawyers have learned to wield it.

In my lifetime, the nature of authoritative prose has changed dramatically, but/and it's interesting to see where the hack still works on humans and where it doesn't. The signalling through language, and the ways that authority have been installed in us through education, is fascinating.

Via