Legalese

Prior to this course I have had little to no exposure to reading or interpreting court cases. To many, they form almost a whole separate language along with things like contracts; a language called "legalese" by some. Legalese is to most a foreign tongue, but it in fact forms the underpinning of almost every facet of our society. In the context of land administration and surveying, legalese is the language of choice, and as such it is important to understand.

My reading level is fairly high, and I do tend to have a good comprehension of simple legal speak, but this course was the first in which I have really had to dive into the language with a goal of understanding it more fully. This course has touched on two major forms of legal documents: deeds - a form of legal contract - and court cases. Both types of legal documents are very relevant to the profession of surveying, and have a direct bearing on how any situation that might arise is handled.

Another dimension which adds to the difficulty of comprehension of these types of documents in particular is the continuing relevance and reference to historical documents. The added difficulty arises from both differences in syntax and grammar as well as the sometimes handwritten nature of the documents themselves through the centuries.

Having full comprehension of these documents, and understanding what the intent the writer was trying to convey is key to the successful completion of surveying and land management goals. One must be prepared to interpret not just what the words on the page are, but what they mean in the differing historical contexts in which they were written, and how that translates through the years to today.

During this course we have had the opportunity to explore both deeds and court cases from various time periods. I think that this is an extremely valuable skill to learn in the land surveying profession. The case review assignment was a fascinating look into the process how the Canadian legal system works, and the simple title search we conducted brought to light some of the many challenges surveyors face.

Both of these assignments also raised something interesting about the profession that I think I knew existed, and that in fact I quite welcome, but that might come as a surprise to many others in this course. That is the intersection of the hard science of survey engineering with the art of history and archiving, and the interpretation of law.

Elsewhere in engineering and indeed in other aspects of the discipline of surveying itself there are clear cut right and wrong answers which are quantifiable based on physical or mathematical tests. Land administration is different. While in many cases it is evident which way of proceeding appears most correct based on a clearly defined set of facts, in many other cases the way forward is much less clear and multiple paths can be argued as correct.

The chains of evidence are long and winding, and may proceed through centuries of records, and may be governed by precedence in chains of court cases meandering through various branches of courts on both sides of the Atlantic back through history. The people involved in the decisions these records document are long gone, and it is up to the surveyor to impartially interpret them as best as possible.

This interpretation can and does have significant bearing on the lives of people as a surveyors opinion on locations of boundaries is often the deciding factor in any type of dispute. While surveyors are not the final decision makers in a boundary case, their opinions are highly regarded by the courts as expert witnesses. As such they must have strong skills in gathering and understanding evidence, be that historical documentation, oral testimony from relevant parties, physical evidence on the ground, and any number of other types.

The point I am getting at is that many coming into this part of our schooling may have to date only dealt with problems that have a verifiable answer. That is an important part of this profession, but all of that sits on the foundation of interpretation and evaluation of often disparate and contradictory evidence from several centuries of our predecessors. Almost anything a modern surveyor does draws its legitimacy from an understanding of precedence and the intent of those that have come before, and that understanding comes from being fluent in the language of the law.