THE PORTUGUESE LANGUAGE IN THE LEGAL SYSTEM: HERMENEUTICS, JARGON AND LATIN

Abstract

This paper analyzes the crucial importance of the Portuguese language for the integrity, effectiveness, and legitimacy of the Brazilian legal system, based on the premise that law is, at its core, a linguistic construct. The central objective is to demonstrate how mastery of standard norms and the precise interpretation of legal language are imperative for realizing the principles of legal certainty, equality, and access to justice. The research, qualitative and bibliographic in nature, is based on authors such as Gadamer (2008), Streck (2011), and Marcuschi (2001), as well as on the critical analysis of constitutional provisions, judicial decisions, and national doctrine. This approach revealed that vagueness, ambiguity, and the persistence of archaic "legalese" constitute obstacles to the effectiveness of law, acting as barriers to understanding and access for the average citizen. The analysis revealed that language is not limited to a formal instrument of normative communication, but is a constitutive condition of the legal phenomenon itself, since a norm only exists when expressed in words. In this sense, legal hermeneutics appears as an essential field for mediating the relationship between text and reality, requiring linguistic sensitivity and interpretative rigor. Similarly, the study of technical jargon revealed its ambivalent nature: while, on the one hand, it ensures conceptual precision, on the other, when used excessively and out of context, it distances the law from society. It is concluded that investing in clear, precise, and accessible legal language is not merely a matter of style, but a fundamental requirement for the implementation of justice and the consolidation of the Democratic Rule of Law. The democratization of legal language, therefore, must be seen as a necessary condition for full citizenship and for reducing power asymmetries in the social sphere.