Double negative

Towards more picturesque speech™ →Go uptown Michael Heizer: Double Negative (1969) SEC guidance on plain EnglishIndex: Click ᐅ to expand: Plain English Drafting Metaphor Tell me more Sign up for our newsletter — or just get in touch: for ½ a weekly 🍺 you get to consult JC. Ask about it here.

One of the easiest flannels for a new learner to master. It can be as simple as “you’re not wrong”, or “I don’t disagree”, it can be subtly buried in a redundant expression like unless and until, it can take shape as a carve-out to a carve-out (also known as a carve-in) or it can find its full-bodied roar, as in that most magnificent contortion, the Indemnifiable Tax definition in the ISDA Master Agreement - a quintuple negative:

An Indemnifiable Tax is any Tax that is not a Stamp Tax that is not a tax that would not be imposed if there were not a connection between the taxing authority’s jurisdiction and the recipient that did not arise solely from the recipient having performed any part of this Agreement in that jurisdiction.

The ISDA Master Agreement is happy hunting ground for multiple negatives. See also the first limb of Section 5(a)(ii), a triple negative addressing the consequences of Breach of Agreement.