BOSTON – Ask most Witches about a spell to get someone out of your life, and you’ll likely hear something like this: First, buy your favorite dessert (a Black Forest cake works, but go with whatever you love). Next, grab a piece of paper and a pen (vellum and fancy pens are optional).
Then, this is important and must be done in a clear, convincing tone. Call the person you want out of your life. When they answer, simply say, “GET OUT OF MY LIFE. GOODBYE.”
After that, reward yourself with a slice of cake and write “Well done!” on the piece of paper as a personal congratulations.
Given the blunt simplicity of this spell, we were intrigued by some recent findings from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) forwarded to us in a press release.
Image credit: Pixabay
In August 2024, MIT cognitive scientists suggested a surprising similarity between magic spells and legal language. Just as spells use rhymes and archaic terms to convey power, legalese relies on complexity to signal authority. It sounds very patriarchal.
In a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers found that even non-lawyers tend to use convoluted language when asked to write laws. “People seem to understand that there’s an implicit rule that this is how laws should sound, and they write them that way,” says Edward Gibson, an MIT professor of brain and cognitive sciences and the senior author of the study.
While laws are supposed to be clear and accessible, they often end up being incomprehensible—even to lawyers. Gibson and his team have been studying legal language since 2020, beginning with an analysis of legal contracts totaling 3.5 million words. They compared these to other types of writing, such as movie scripts and news articles, and found that legal documents often include long, complex definitions inserted mid-sentence, a structure known as “center-embedding.” This feature, they discovered, makes legal documents harder to understand.
A 2023 follow-up study revealed that even lawyers struggle with legalese. They preferred plain English versions of legal documents, finding them just as enforceable but far easier to process. “Lawyers don’t like legalese, laypeople don’t like it, so the question is: why do we keep writing it this way?” Gibson asks.
To find out, the research team analyzed 59 million words and ran experiments with 286 participants. They found that when people were asked to write official laws, they naturally used more complicated language than when writing unofficial legal texts, even when both were conceptually identical.
The team explored two possible explanations. The “copy and edit” theory suggests legalese evolves as simple drafts are revised with additional conditions, leading to more complex sentences. But the results pointed toward the “magic spell” hypothesis: just as spells use distinctive language to convey their power, legalese appears to use complexity to signal authority.
“In English culture, people associate magic spells with old-fashioned rhymes,” Gibson explains. “We think legalese might serve a similar purpose, with center-embedded structures signaling something uniquely legal.” He adds that this style may simply be a holdover from early legal writing that became standard practice over time.
The study concludes that legal language’s complexity stems from its performative nature—it uses rare structures to signal authority, even at the expense of clarity. The good news? Laws don’t have to be this way. The findings suggest they can be simplified without losing their meaning or enforceability.
Robert Benson, an emeritus professor of law at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, didn’t hold back his criticism of legalese in a 1987 article. He described it as dull, pompous, riddled with long sentences, misplaced phrases, and obscure words—all while avoiding pronouns, making it exceptionally hard to understand. Benson’s disdain for legalese was even more evident in a 1985 article where he called for its abolition.
“It’s not just another prose style,” he wrote. “It’s extremely strange—beyond the bounds of normal prose, even in a diverse society. It’s so disconnected from everyday language that, in the hands of a powerful and exclusive profession, it becomes, at best, a symbol of alienation and, at worst, a tool to intimidate and exploit the public.”
Perhaps lawmakers could take a page from Witches: say what you mean, keep it simple, and enjoy the cake.
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