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Article
One Redeeming Quality About the 112th Congress: Refocusing on Descriptive Rather than Evocative Short Titles
Michigan Law Review Online (2013)
  • Brian Christopher Jones, Academia Sinica
Abstract
For all intents and purposes the 112th Congress has been deemed a massive failure by most; fewer laws enacted and contemptuous debates characterized the session’s most lambasted qualities. However, one redeemable aspect was present: a focus back on descriptive and technical words for short titles, rather than evocative or tendentious terms. When compared to the 111th Congress, the use of evocative words slowed while the use of technical terms increased. This is the first time this has happened since the 101st-102nd Congress (1989-1993). Additionally, it is the largest separation between technical and evocative words since the 103rd Congress (1993-1995). Yet many things regarding short titles remained the same (frequency of use, length, and personalization). In a time of polarizing rhetoric over law and politics, however, an increase in technical short titles and a decrease in evocative short titles is a small, but significant, outcome. At the very least, it is one redeeming quality in regard to what is seemingly a universally loathed Congress.
Keywords
  • bills,
  • acts,
  • Congress,
  • legislation,
  • legal writing,
  • public law,
  • drafting
Publication Date
July, 2013
Citation Information
Brian Christopher Jones. "One Redeeming Quality About the 112th Congress: Refocusing on Descriptive Rather than Evocative Short Titles" Michigan Law Review Online Vol. 112 (2013)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/brian_jones/10/