English law grew up in the times of the Plantagenet Kings when the language of the court was French and/or Latin. After a couple of hundred years, English started to be used in legal documents. The writers of legal documents were not always sure whether there was a slight difference in the meaning of the various words available to them so they covered themselves, and their clients / the state, by using two or three words from different roots. 
E.g. 'Mr. X shall  not [do something] in any way, shape or form'. *Shape* comes from a northern European root, *form* comes from Latin, but they mean exactly the same. (*Way* has a different meaning.)