Interpretation in the Age of AI: (Re)Negotiating the Legal Language Zone in Professional Correspondence

Abstract This conceptual paper introduces the Legal Language Zone (LLZ) as a framework for analysing professional legal correspondence in the age of artificial intelligence. Drawing on the Businesslike Zone from business communication pedagogy, the LLZ is theorised as a multidimensional communicative continuum structured by six interrelated dimensions: text organisation and structural cohesion; lexical specificity and terminological precision; politeness and relational distance; correctness; professional credibility; and anticipatory interpretation and strategic indeterminacy. The framework adapts the communicative calibration underlying the Businesslike Zone to the interpretive, and strategic demands of legal communication. The paper examines how large language models (LLMs) may both support and destabilise communication within the LLZ. It argues that AI can enhance drafting efficiency, structural consistency, terminological precision, and surface-level correctness, while remaining limited in context-sensitive interpretation, strategic judgment, and anticipation of future interpretive consequences. Particular attention is given to legal indeterminacy and the distinction between strategic interpretive openness and unintended ambiguity. These limitations raise questions of professional responsibility, accountability, and supervision, particularly as AI develops towards more autonomous forms of agency. The paper therefore argues for a collaborative rather than substitutive model of human–AI drafting in which legal professionals retain responsibility for contextual interpretation, communicative risk, ethical judgment, and professional accountability.