Abstract

These days, there are many initiatives promoting plain language (PL) in the field of law. Nevertheless, a lack of awareness about PL’s usefulness continues to hinder its acceptance. This theoretical and literature-based study seeks to outline the benefits of using clear, plain language in legal communication and, based on this, to develop a proposal that makes it possible to link PL’s benefits with its beneficiaries. To this end, we have analysed a corpus of 33 research articles. Among our main findings are not only the benefits of PL, reported from different perspectives, but also a proposal on the subject. The central premise of our proposal is that there is no such thing as a truly universal form of PL, applicable as a standard formula to any communicative situation. This means that it is essential to establish a relationship between the benefits and the beneficiaries of PL. In conclusion, implementing PL following the proposed guidelines would not only contribute to optimising resources and judicial processes but also encourage greater acceptance of PL within the legal field. © 2025, Escola d'Administracio Publica de Catalunya. All rights reserved.