Ambiguity in legislative writing causes confusion and misunderstanding. Sometimes, the ambiguity comes from conflicts between the drafter’s intended relationship of words and the reader’s perceived relationship of those words. At other times, ambiguity comes from the drafter’s failure to define important terms clearly. This paper (i) examines reasons for ambiguity in legislative writing as well as some of the problems that can be created by that ambiguity and (ii) offers strategies for avoiding ambiguity while drafting legislation, including the use of mathematical set theory to examine potentially ambiguous sentences.

中文翻译：

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揭开立法写作中歧义的神秘面纱

立法写作中的歧义会导致混淆和误解。有时，歧义来自起草者预期的词语关系与读者对这些词语的感知关系之间的冲突。在其他时候，歧义来自起草者未能明确定义重要术语。本文 (i) 研究了立法写作中歧义的原因以及这种歧义可能造成的一些问题，以及 (ii) 提供了在起草立法时避免歧义的策略，包括使用数学集合理论来检查潜在的歧义句子。