Legal & Bureaucratic Language
Legal & Bureaucratic Language
Official Dutch — often called ambtelijke taal — has its own prepositions (krachtens, ingevolge, onverminderd), its own reference words (voornoemde, zulks) and a habit of turning every verb into a noun. Reading it is a distinct skill.
Grammar Comparison
Grammar Comparison
Legal prepositions govern nouns and appear nowhere else
krachtens artikel 5, ingevolge de wet, onverminderd het bepaalde in lid 2
pursuant to article 5, in accordance with the law, without prejudice to the provisions of paragraph 2
krachtens ('by virtue of'), ingevolge ('pursuant to'), onverminderd ('without prejudice to') and behoudens ('save for') are confined to legal and administrative text. English legal register has exact counterparts, which helps — but the Dutch forms are single words governing a bare noun phrase, so they are easy to overlook when skimming.
Reference words point backwards through the document
de voornoemde partij, het bepaalde in lid 1, zulks ter beoordeling van de directie
the aforementioned party, the provisions of paragraph 1, this at the discretion of management
Administrative Dutch avoids repeating a noun by using voornoemd ('aforementioned'), het bepaalde ('the provisions'), genoemd and zulks ('such, this'). het bepaalde is a nominalized past participle — literally 'that which has been determined' — and behaves as a singular neuter noun. These words are the connective tissue of contracts and regulations.
dan wel and alsmede replace or and and
de huurder dan wel de verhuurder, alsmede de betrokken derden
the tenant or the landlord, as well as the third parties concerned
In legal text, of becomes dan wel to mark an exclusive alternative, and en becomes alsmede or mede for additions. The point is precision: dan wel makes clear that exactly one of the two applies, where of could be read inclusively. This is one of the few places where Dutch is more explicit than English, which relies on 'and/or'.
Vocabulary
Vocabulary
- English
- by virtue of
- English
- pursuant to
- English
- without prejudice to
- English
- save for / except
- English
- aforementioned
- English
- the provisions
- English
- or (exclusive)
- English
- as well as
- English
- the opposing party
- English
- the paragraph / clause
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