This paper presents a genre analysis of the internal communicative mechanisms deployed in three main legal documents amply used in international trade: The London Court of International Arbitration Rules, the Geneva Convention for the International Carriage of Goods by Road and Lloyd's Institute Cargo Clauses. The ‘power distance’ notion was entered to explore the asymmetries between the text interactants, in order to disclose the covert nuances of power and infliction in their discursive devices. The paper also examined the occurrence of metadiscourse markers in these texts, used to affect recipients’ attitudes and conduct.