Abstract

[Contamination and degradation of legal language: reflections on the principle of trust, legal certainty and democratic participation]. The legal text must clearly communicate the legal rule. The ease of understanding of the rule by citizens is the condition for its effectiveness and legal certainty. The primary assumption of comprehensibility is the existence of a strong link with the matrix of common language. In Italy the legal language, for many reasons, is complex, imprecise, full of terms of other languages, increasingly distant from common language. A clear legal rule allows the citizen’s understanding, certainty and participation in democratic life.