> you physically have to flick back and forth between pages to understand what the contract means.
Well, when a function is called the computer does this as well. And it drags me along with it when I am in a debugging session with a debugger on :P
How common is it that a judge has to dig deeply into a contract?
Re:Contract for Sale of Soul
by hn_throwaway_69 on Saturday November 06, 2021 @04:35AM
(#29128429)
Depends on the nature of the issue at trial.
Sometimes it's fairly confined. Usually they don't need to understand the whole thing.
But the interpretation isn't piecemeal and usually requires understanding the background.
Legalisms don't make for particularly hard contracts.
In the real world, I've found complexity is often caused by attempts to simplify the contract. Or perhaps to simplify its drafting.
The most common offender is the overuse of Definitions which are often Capitalised Definitions. Interestingly in code you might compare it to the use of a function (); except that in the real world you can't easily call a function - you physically have to flick back and forth between pages to understand what the contract means.
The other cause of complexity is when parts of the contract aren't written by lawyers, but by engineers or risk analysts. Which the lawyers will do to simplify their job. I've seen some of these contracts and after weeks I can't understand them. A judge interpreting this contract basically has to become an expert in the relevant subject area. I don't envy them.