CUNEF Universidad and the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) hold a new seminar on plain language and Artificial Intelligence

As part of the collaboration agreement for the study, teaching, and research on plain language signed by CUNEF Universidad and the Royal Spanish Academy (Real Academia Española in spanish), the second seminar in the “Plain Language and Law” series was held at the Almansa Campus. The session focused on legal plain language and supporting Artificial Intelligence tools and was delivered by Iria da Cunha, coordinator of the arText research team at the UNED.

Iria da Cunha began her presentation by outlining the most significant milestones in plain language to date. In this regard, she addressed the modernization of legal language, for which the approval of Organic Law 5/2024 of November 11 on the Right of Defense has been key. Article 9 of this law establishes citizens’ right to clear language in procedural acts, rulings, and communications, requiring them to be simple and accessible without losing technical precision. Da Cunha emphasized this concept by noting that “it is not about being clear or there being clarity, but about ‘using plain language,’ which means that plain language is already a term that refers to a concept, even as a theoretical discipline.”

Panhispanic Network for Clear and Accessible Language

She also highlighted the importance of the Panhispanic Network for Clear and Accessible Language promoted by the RAE, which already includes more than 500 affiliated institutions. The researcher pointed out that “this network brought together all of us who were working on the same issue from different perspectives.”

In relation to the difficulties that previously existed in establishing clear language criteria, da Cunha referred to the case of public administration, which often failed to apply such criteria because they were contained in a 40-page guide full of technical language.

To address this, her research team conducted a survey among Madrid City Council civil servants, with a sample of 756 public employees, 90% of whom acknowledged that a technological support tool based on plain language could help them in their work.

Artificial Intelligence

Following the identification of this need, da Cunha and her team developed the arText project, a tool that uses Artificial Intelligence to assist in writing in plain language or understanding legal and institutional documents. According to its website, arText is “the first assisted writing tool in Spanish that helps produce specialized texts and texts in plain language.”

Da Cunha also stressed the importance of data privacy, noting that documents uploaded by users are not stored in the cloud but remain on the user’s device, unlike tools such as ChatGPT, which do store users’ confidential documents in the cloud.

The session highlighted the potential of Artificial Intelligence as an ally in improving the understanding of legal language, moving towards more accessible, efficient communication tailored to the real needs of Spanish-speaking citizens and professionals.