Use of parentheses/brackets in legal titles
Legal systems descended from British jurisprudence seem to like to use a lot of parentheses in titles:
Foreigners (Protected Areas) Order 1958, India
Law Enforcement (Powers and Responsibilities) Act 2002, Australia
Betting (Singapore Turf Club — Exemption) (Cancellation) Notification 2019, Singapore
To the layman, these not only appear to be in random places, but go directly against usual practice: instead of using parentheses for parenthetical (additional) information, they "bury the lede" by putting the actual content in them.
What is the logic used to decide what goes in parentheses and what stays out?
(And yes, this question might also be a fit for Law.SE, but this is fundamentally about the usage of punctuation, not the law.)
punctuation usage parentheses
asked 2 days ago
jpatokaljpatokal
227313
add a comment |
Legal systems descended from British jurisprudence seem to like to use a lot of parentheses in titles:
Foreigners (Protected Areas) Order 1958, India
Law Enforcement (Powers and Responsibilities) Act 2002, Australia
Betting (Singapore Turf Club — Exemption) (Cancellation) Notification 2019, Singapore
To the layman, these not only appear to be in random places, but go directly against usual practice: instead of using parentheses for parenthetical (additional) information, they "bury the lede" by putting the actual content in them.
What is the logic used to decide what goes in parentheses and what stays out?
(And yes, this question might also be a fit for Law.SE, but this is fundamentally about the usage of punctuation, not the law.)
punctuation usage parentheses
asked 2 days ago
jpatokaljpatokal
227313
In terms of grammar, nothing in parentheses should have an impact on a sentence if its removed. That doesn't mean that it doesn't convey something. But it still shouldn't be anything essential. This also means that, technically, if not practically, it doesn't matter where the content in parentheses goes. I can't see anything about these titles that indicates anything other than parenthetical information. If I read the titles after removing everything in parentheses, they still make sense.
– Jason Bassford
2 days ago
Where there is a Foreigners (Protected Areas) Order there will usually be also a Foreigners Order and Foreigners (Other SubTopic) Order. The subtopic goes in parentheses.
– michael.hor257k
2 days ago
add a comment |
Legal systems descended from British jurisprudence seem to like to use a lot of parentheses in titles:
Foreigners (Protected Areas) Order 1958, India
Law Enforcement (Powers and Responsibilities) Act 2002, Australia
Betting (Singapore Turf Club — Exemption) (Cancellation) Notification 2019, Singapore
To the layman, these not only appear to be in random places, but go directly against usual practice: instead of using parentheses for parenthetical (additional) information, they "bury the lede" by putting the actual content in them.
What is the logic used to decide what goes in parentheses and what stays out?
(And yes, this question might also be a fit for Law.SE, but this is fundamentally about the usage of punctuation, not the law.)
punctuation usage parentheses
asked 2 days ago
jpatokaljpatokal
227313
Legal systems descended from British jurisprudence seem to like to use a lot of parentheses in titles:
Foreigners (Protected Areas) Order 1958, India
Law Enforcement (Powers and Responsibilities) Act 2002, Australia
Betting (Singapore Turf Club — Exemption) (Cancellation) Notification 2019, Singapore
To the layman, these not only appear to be in random places, but go directly against usual practice: instead of using parentheses for parenthetical (additional) information, they "bury the lede" by putting the actual content in them.
What is the logic used to decide what goes in parentheses and what stays out?
(And yes, this question might also be a fit for Law.SE, but this is fundamentally about the usage of punctuation, not the law.)
punctuation usage parentheses
punctuation usage parentheses
asked 2 days ago
jpatokaljpatokal
227313
asked 2 days ago
jpatokaljpatokal
227313
asked 2 days ago
jpatokaljpatokal
227313
asked 2 days ago
jpatokaljpatokal
227313
asked 2 days ago
jpatokaljpatokal
227313
227313
In terms of grammar, nothing in parentheses should have an impact on a sentence if its removed. That doesn't mean that it doesn't convey something. But it still shouldn't be anything essential. This also means that, technically, if not practically, it doesn't matter where the content in parentheses goes. I can't see anything about these titles that indicates anything other than parenthetical information. If I read the titles after removing everything in parentheses, they still make sense.
– Jason Bassford
2 days ago
Where there is a Foreigners (Protected Areas) Order there will usually be also a Foreigners Order and Foreigners (Other SubTopic) Order. The subtopic goes in parentheses.
– michael.hor257k
2 days ago
add a comment |
In terms of grammar, nothing in parentheses should have an impact on a sentence if its removed. That doesn't mean that it doesn't convey something. But it still shouldn't be anything essential. This also means that, technically, if not practically, it doesn't matter where the content in parentheses goes. I can't see anything about these titles that indicates anything other than parenthetical information. If I read the titles after removing everything in parentheses, they still make sense.
– Jason Bassford
2 days ago
Where there is a Foreigners (Protected Areas) Order there will usually be also a Foreigners Order and Foreigners (Other SubTopic) Order. The subtopic goes in parentheses.
– michael.hor257k
2 days ago
In terms of grammar, nothing in parentheses should have an impact on a sentence if its removed. That doesn't mean that it doesn't convey something. But it still shouldn't be anything essential. This also means that, technically, if not practically, it doesn't matter where the content in parentheses goes. I can't see anything about these titles that indicates anything other than parenthetical information. If I read the titles after removing everything in parentheses, they still make sense.
– Jason Bassford
2 days ago
In terms of grammar, nothing in parentheses should have an impact on a sentence if its removed. That doesn't mean that it doesn't convey something. But it still shouldn't be anything essential. This also means that, technically, if not practically, it doesn't matter where the content in parentheses goes. I can't see anything about these titles that indicates anything other than parenthetical information. If I read the titles after removing everything in parentheses, they still make sense.
– Jason Bassford
2 days ago
Where there is a Foreigners (Protected Areas) Order there will usually be also a Foreigners Order and Foreigners (Other SubTopic) Order. The subtopic goes in parentheses.
– michael.hor257k
2 days ago
Where there is a Foreigners (Protected Areas) Order there will usually be also a Foreigners Order and Foreigners (Other SubTopic) Order. The subtopic goes in parentheses.
– michael.hor257k
2 days ago
add a comment |
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
"What is the logic used to decide what goes in parentheses and what stays out?"
The main phrase (excluding the parenthetical) is the essential Bill/ Act/ Law/ Rule/ Order. It is qualified where required by additional information in parentheses.
There could be several Orders under the subject "Foreigners". Among them, the one that deals with "Protected Areas" as related to Foreigners is titled as "Foreigners (Protected Areas) Order."
That logic and style of conveyancing is part of legalese, but nothing unconventional.
answered 2 days ago
KrisKris
32.5k541117
Thanks, but why parenthesize in the first place? Eg. US laws usually don't seem to do this.
– jpatokal
2 days ago
As I said, it's style and convention (of hierarchy.) Without parentheses, you'll see no hierarchy, so the parentheses serve a purpose. Other variants may follow other hierarchical styles or methods.
– Kris
2 days ago
add a comment |
Your Answer
StackExchange.ready(function() {
var channelOptions = {
tags: "".split(" "),
id: "97"
};
initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);
StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
// Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
createEditor();
});
}
else {
createEditor();
}
});
function createEditor() {
StackExchange.prepareEditor({
heartbeatType: 'answer',
autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
convertImagesToLinks: false,
noModals: true,
showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
reputationToPostImages: null,
bindNavPrevention: true,
postfix: "",
imageUploader: {
brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
allowUrls: true
},
noCode: true, onDemand: true,
discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
});
}
});
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fenglish.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f480588%2fuse-of-parentheses-brackets-in-legal-titles%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
"What is the logic used to decide what goes in parentheses and what stays out?"
The main phrase (excluding the parenthetical) is the essential Bill/ Act/ Law/ Rule/ Order. It is qualified where required by additional information in parentheses.
There could be several Orders under the subject "Foreigners". Among them, the one that deals with "Protected Areas" as related to Foreigners is titled as "Foreigners (Protected Areas) Order."
That logic and style of conveyancing is part of legalese, but nothing unconventional.
answered 2 days ago
KrisKris
32.5k541117
Thanks, but why parenthesize in the first place? Eg. US laws usually don't seem to do this.
– jpatokal
2 days ago
As I said, it's style and convention (of hierarchy.) Without parentheses, you'll see no hierarchy, so the parentheses serve a purpose. Other variants may follow other hierarchical styles or methods.
– Kris
2 days ago
add a comment |
"What is the logic used to decide what goes in parentheses and what stays out?"
The main phrase (excluding the parenthetical) is the essential Bill/ Act/ Law/ Rule/ Order. It is qualified where required by additional information in parentheses.
There could be several Orders under the subject "Foreigners". Among them, the one that deals with "Protected Areas" as related to Foreigners is titled as "Foreigners (Protected Areas) Order."
That logic and style of conveyancing is part of legalese, but nothing unconventional.
answered 2 days ago
KrisKris
32.5k541117
Thanks, but why parenthesize in the first place? Eg. US laws usually don't seem to do this.
– jpatokal
2 days ago
As I said, it's style and convention (of hierarchy.) Without parentheses, you'll see no hierarchy, so the parentheses serve a purpose. Other variants may follow other hierarchical styles or methods.
– Kris
2 days ago
add a comment |
"What is the logic used to decide what goes in parentheses and what stays out?"
The main phrase (excluding the parenthetical) is the essential Bill/ Act/ Law/ Rule/ Order. It is qualified where required by additional information in parentheses.
There could be several Orders under the subject "Foreigners". Among them, the one that deals with "Protected Areas" as related to Foreigners is titled as "Foreigners (Protected Areas) Order."
That logic and style of conveyancing is part of legalese, but nothing unconventional.
answered 2 days ago
KrisKris
32.5k541117
"What is the logic used to decide what goes in parentheses and what stays out?"
The main phrase (excluding the parenthetical) is the essential Bill/ Act/ Law/ Rule/ Order. It is qualified where required by additional information in parentheses.
There could be several Orders under the subject "Foreigners". Among them, the one that deals with "Protected Areas" as related to Foreigners is titled as "Foreigners (Protected Areas) Order."
That logic and style of conveyancing is part of legalese, but nothing unconventional.
answered 2 days ago
KrisKris
32.5k541117
answered 2 days ago
KrisKris
32.5k541117
answered 2 days ago
KrisKris
32.5k541117
answered 2 days ago
KrisKris
32.5k541117
32.5k541117
Thanks, but why parenthesize in the first place? Eg. US laws usually don't seem to do this.
– jpatokal
2 days ago
As I said, it's style and convention (of hierarchy.) Without parentheses, you'll see no hierarchy, so the parentheses serve a purpose. Other variants may follow other hierarchical styles or methods.
– Kris
2 days ago
add a comment |
Thanks, but why parenthesize in the first place? Eg. US laws usually don't seem to do this.
– jpatokal
2 days ago
As I said, it's style and convention (of hierarchy.) Without parentheses, you'll see no hierarchy, so the parentheses serve a purpose. Other variants may follow other hierarchical styles or methods.
– Kris
2 days ago
Thanks, but why parenthesize in the first place? Eg. US laws usually don't seem to do this.
– jpatokal
2 days ago
Thanks, but why parenthesize in the first place? Eg. US laws usually don't seem to do this.
– jpatokal
2 days ago
As I said, it's style and convention (of hierarchy.) Without parentheses, you'll see no hierarchy, so the parentheses serve a purpose. Other variants may follow other hierarchical styles or methods.
– Kris
2 days ago
As I said, it's style and convention (of hierarchy.) Without parentheses, you'll see no hierarchy, so the parentheses serve a purpose. Other variants may follow other hierarchical styles or methods.
– Kris
2 days ago
add a comment |
Thanks for contributing an answer to English Language & Usage Stack Exchange!
- Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!
But avoid …
- Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.
- Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.
To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fenglish.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f480588%2fuse-of-parentheses-brackets-in-legal-titles%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
In terms of grammar, nothing in parentheses should have an impact on a sentence if its removed. That doesn't mean that it doesn't convey something. But it still shouldn't be anything essential. This also means that, technically, if not practically, it doesn't matter where the content in parentheses goes. I can't see anything about these titles that indicates anything other than parenthetical information. If I read the titles after removing everything in parentheses, they still make sense.
– Jason Bassford
2 days ago
Where there is a Foreigners (Protected Areas) Order there will usually be also a Foreigners Order and Foreigners (Other SubTopic) Order. The subtopic goes in parentheses.
– michael.hor257k
2 days ago