"Shall" and "will" in legal requirements
What is the implication of using shall versus will in writing a specification document?
For instance, lets say I have the paragraph, "upon by all parties involved."
All information between persons involved in this project will be kept confidential and limited distribution of information only to persons agreed upon by all parties involved.
Have I just exposed myself legally to allow a breach of confidentiality because I didn't use shall? What would use of shall/will in this paragraph imply?
Related, but does not fill my need: When should I use "shall" versus "will"?.
RFC 2119 is the standard here. If something must happen, you need to use Shall. So although not necessary legally, but logically you have exposed yourself to a breach.
I am not a lawyer. This is not legal advice
This is a late reply, but I happen to be looking into the difference between shall, will and must right now. What I find is the following, according to plain English:
- Will in a contract should reflect only the future tense (not create obligations to perform).
- Shall does not refer to the future. It can be paraphrased as "has the duty to" and refers only to capable subjects (meaning, Lessor, or Buyer shall do something, but not Property or Product shall).
- Must refers to the duty to perform of inanimate subjects (like the product or the property).
However, shall being the "most misued word in legal English", it is suggested to avoid using it altogether and to replace it with must, which is now being used for obligations of animate subjects as well.
This was useful: http://www.plainlanguage.gov/howto/wordsuggestions/shallmust.cfm and it quotes Bryan Garner so it's a good source.