Bitte Recht verständlich! Evaluation der Gesetzesredaktion des Bundes bei der Verständlichkeitsoptimierung von Rechtsvorschriften

Abstract

This article reports on a completed research project on the evaluation of the linguistic legal editorial in the German Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection (2019-2021). The study focuses on the development of a holistic model of criteria for assessing the comprehensibility of norm texts, an empirical typing of comprehensibility criteria, and the survey of reception patterns of norm texts edited by law-editors. The study confirms that intensive cooperation between legal linguists and legal experts is necessary to make laws more comprehensible and legal practice more efficient.