Fuzziness in legal English: what shall we do with 'shall'?

This chapter examines whether the once revered modal auxiliary shall still has a role to play in legal English. The author also investigates the direction in which the Plain Language Movement is heading, its aims and the means it uses to reach its objectives, with particular reference to the question of whether or not to eliminate shall completely from prescriptive texts. The author highlights the uses and misuses of this modal auxiliary in legal English and examines the alternatives that have been adopted in shall-free texts. He then focuses on the presumed ‘fuzziness’ of shall and suggests that some of the criticism of the Plain Language Movement is not always justified. The author concludes the chapter with an evaluation as to whether there is still a place for shall in modern prescriptive texts