Government relations in brief. The author, Peter R. Dahlen is an American lawyer and the Director of Government Relations at TransLegal. As a Legislative Counsel in Washington, D.C., Peter advised a U.S. Senator on legal questions and legislative language. He helped draft U.S. legislation regarding intellectual property, criminal law, privacy, election and campaign finance law, Internet crime and security, and critical infrastructure protection. Peter regularly contributes items on the language of lobbying and public policy.

SOX is a popular name for the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, which is the U.S. government’s legislative response to corporate and accounting scandals such as Enron, WorldCom and Adelphia. SOX establishes new and  enhanced standards for all public company boards and management as well as public accounting firms ranging from corporate board responsibilities to criminal penalties to strengthening corporate accounting controls. [read more]

Eurojargon describes itself as a plain language guide to Eurojargon — the specialized language characteristic of people within the EU institutions. Similar to Beltway-ese which is the jargon used inside the Beltway in government offices and Congress and among lobbyists in Washington, DC. Eurojargon is a great reseorce for penatrating Europen Union jargon. [read more]

The phrase third rail is a political metaphor used to denote an issue or topic that is so controversial or charged that it is actually politically dangerous. Indeed, any politician who introduces such a subject runs the risk of suffering political damage. [read more]