This paper discusses the ‘fuzziness’ of Hungarian legal language as an issue of language
planning addressed in the Hungarian language strategy to be published by the Hungarian
Research Centre for Language Planning. First, we give a concise historical overview
on the status of Hungarian language in Hungary, only to make it evident how its status
had a direct effect on its legal language variant, and how the characteristics of
Hungarian legal language are determined by these diachronic changes even today. Second,
we cannot ignore the theoretical background of legal language(s), for there are some
universal traits that are present regardless of language and as such they are the
fundamentals for clear writing incentives. Third, we treat clear writing incentives
as language planning programmes aimed at solving issues of legal language or legal
language use. These movements receive much criticism (many times rightfully so) because
they lack a clear-cut theoretical basis – something we were keen to avoid. Fourth,
we introduce the sources of our clear writing practices in a comparative manner, thus
comparing our current clear writing programmes to that of the European Union’s Clear
Writing and the United States’ Federal Plain Language Guidelines of the Plain Language
Action and Information Network (PLAIN). We conclude our paper by outlining further
research, monitoring necessities, and opportunities for international cooperation.
