Neither party shall be liable to the other for failure to perform or delay in the performance of its obligations caused by any circumstances beyond its reasonable control

(Ни одна из сторон не несет ответственности перед другой стороной за неисполнение обязательств или за несвоевременное исполнение обязательств, если причиной этому были обстоятельства непреодолимой силы)

It contains 28 words, of which 17 are Old English, 7 Old French and 4 Latin. Of the Old English words, 9 are articles or prepositions (e.g. the, to, for, in, by). All the important legal terms (e.g. party, liable, obligations, reasonable, perform) are either Old French or Latin.

It follows that Latin-based terminology is essential to legal English. To use a computing analogy, we might say that where legal English is concerned, English is the ‘hardware’ which determines the grammatical construction of the sentences, but the Latin-based terminology is the ‘software’ which provides the legal meaning.

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II. Terminology and etymology: where are these words from?

LAW -LEGAL

The basic word LAW means «закон» и «право». But different derivative notions use the root LEG- like in legal

law – legal

The word law has Old English origin it appeared in ancient times when the Saxons invaded Britain.

The word legal appeared in Middle English from Old French, where it came from Latin leglis.

law… – lawful

leg… - legal; legacy; legitimate; legislate; legislation; legislature