Such a language would facilitate exchanges between information centers, especially when networks such as EURONET and SCANNET become available. The study focused on the special retrieval requirements of the legal professions and the common features of existing legal retrieval systems, with emphasis on system commands and operators and the reaction of the system to system commands and parameters. Legal information systems were found to differ with general information systems in terms of their need for full text storage; the importance of cross references and dates in legal documents; and lawyers' specialized needs, including the need for a highly simplified user language and the need for only the information absolutely necessary rather than complete information on a subject. Eight existing software packages for information retrieval were analyzed with respect to such functions as the selection of the search area, the selection of search terms, the combining of search terms, the saving and changing of queries, and the display of results. Problems involved in implementing a common language are discussed. Proposals are presented regarding the important functions of a common query language. These proposals are contrasted with standards suggested for the EURONET network. Figures and tables are provided.