The author analyses the function of vague words and expressions in Italian standard distributorship agreements and concludes that, whereas the use of such terms enables flexibility in statutes, they are often used in contracts to take advantage of the economically weaker party, here the distributing agent. According to the author, the legal concept of vagueness corresponds to three forms of linguistic vagueness described by Pinkal (1980): true vagueness, peripheral fuzziness and porosity. To this she adds a fourth linguistic form – relative expressions. As in statutes, many of the vague legal terms and expressions are not defined by hidden legal definitions, they allow discretion which can be used to the advantage of the stronger party. Since vague legal terms and expressions usually have different meanings in different legal systems, the translator has the task of making the implicit meaning explicit. The author raises the question of how this can be done within the framework of JUSLEX, a bilingual Italian/German terminology databank which she created for legal translators.