Quote Originally Posted by MMI View Post
As for the impenetrability of scientific and legal texts, I would suggest that any experiment or theory can be written down in an intelligible manner if it is first thought out clearly. Likewise a statute of law or a court ruling. It is vague description that makes many scientific papers hard to understand, and it is imprecise terminology that enables lawyers to argue over meaning.
This is precisely why so many scientists and, especially, lawyers use so much Latin terminology. As a 'dead' language, the meanings of words are fixed, not subject to interpretation. Terms in a vibrant, living language can change meanings with the fads of the times, thereby causing the meaning of a statement, no matter how clear, to change over time. A young man in the '60's who picked up a 'bird' wasn't bringing a chicken home for dinner, was he?