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For the avoidance of doubt: Difference between revisions
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:—Douglas Adams, {{hhgg}}}} | :—Douglas Adams, {{hhgg}}}} | ||
===Should a lawyer ever say these words?=== | ===Should a lawyer ever say these words?=== | ||
When one whose [[Legal eagle|livelihood]] | When one whose [[Legal eagle|livelihood]] attests to unusual semantic facility — uses the ugly expression “[[for the avoidance of doubt]]”, she surrenders without a shot to the demands of the English language. Even as a piece of English the phrase is hideous: who [[Nominalisation|converts]] “avoid” into a [[noun]]? What kind of glass-half-empty misanthrope sets as a guiding objective ''not being confusing''? | ||
“You had one job”, so the saying goes: it is to express yourself in a way that ''doesn’t contain doubt in the first place''. For what is the point of a {{tag|contract}} if not to clear up the confusion left by the primordial grunts, nods and mumblings of interacting merchants? | “You had one job”, so the saying goes: it is to express yourself in a way that ''doesn’t contain doubt in the first place''. For what is the point of a {{tag|contract}} if not to clear up the confusion left by the primordial grunts, nods and mumblings of interacting merchants? | ||