Ambiguity in Focus: A Forensic Discourse Analysis of Republic Act 11648

Citizens enforce laws; therefore, legal documents must be understandable not only to legal experts but also to individuals who are not well-versed in legal language. This study analyzed the Republic Act 11648, or the Act Increasing the Age for Determining the Commission of Statutory Rape. In particular, the researchers aimed to unravel the ambiguities and the structure of this provision. Using Boyarskaya's (2019) Eight Classifications of Ambiguities and Coode's (1845) Four Elements of the Legal Rule as theoretical frameworks, the analysis of the texts reveals that ambiguity is circumstantial in assessing the effectiveness of Coode's standard legislative structure. The study's results showed that the eight classifications of ambiguities were present in the provision, and only two sentences contained all four elements of the legal rule. In addition, ambiguities limit the effectiveness, adequacy, specificity, and validity of interpreting the legal text, even though it follows Coode's Structure of Legislative Provisions. The analyses not only reveal that RA 11648 has ambiguities and follows a particular structure, but they also suggest existing issues in the Philippine legal context, particularly regarding references, grammar, structure, and vocabulary that need to be addressed. Ultimately, this study highly contributes to an in-depth view of the overall linguistic approach of the Philippine legal system through the lens of forensic studies.