Legal Linguistics

The world of law has changed in the last decades: it has become more globalized, multilingual and digital. The sections and contributions of this volume continue the interdisciplinary discussion about the challenges of this change for theory and practice of law and for the International Language and Law Association (ILLA) relaunched in 2017. First, the book gives a broad overview to the research field of legal linguistics, its history, research directions and open questions in different parts of the world (United States, Africa, Italy, Spain, Germany, Nordic countries and Russia). The second section consists of contributions about the relation of language, law and justice in a globalized world with a focus on multilingual and supranational law in the EU. The third section focuses on digitalization and mediatization of the law, the last section reports about the discussion at the ILLA relaunch conference in 2017.

This book examines legal language as a language for special purposes, evaluating the functions and characteristics of legal language and the terminology of law. Using examples drawn from major and lesser legal languages, it examines the major legal languages themselves, beginning with Latin through German, French, Spanish and English. This second edition has been fully revised, updated and enlarged. A new chapter on legal Spanish takes into account the increasing importance of the language, and a new section explores the use (in legal circles) of the two variants of the Norwegian language. All chapters have been thoroughly updated and include more detailed footnote referencing. The work will be a valuable resource for students, researchers, and practitioners in the areas of legal history and theory, comparative law, semiotics, and linguistics. It will also be of interest to legal translators and terminologists.

This history of legal language slices through the polysyllabic thicket of legalese. The text shows to what extent legalese is simply a product of its past and demonstrates that arcane vocabulary is not an inevitable feature of our legal system.

This book explores the language of judges. It is concerned with understanding how language works in judicial contexts. Using a range of disciplinary and methodological perspectives, it looks in detail at the ways in which judicial discourse is argued, constructed, interpreted and perceived. Focusing on four central themes - constructing judicial discourse and judicial identities, judicial argumentation and evaluative language, judicial interpretation, and clarity in judicial discourse - the book’s ultimate goal is to provide a comprehensive and in-depth analysis of current critical issues of the role of language in judicial settings. Contributors include legal linguists, lawyers, legal scholars, legal practitioners, legal translators and anthropologists, who explore patterns of linguistic organisation and use in judicial institutions and analyse language as an instrument for understanding both the judicial decision-making process and its outcome. The book will be an invaluable resource for scholars in legal linguistics and those specialising in judicial argumentation and reasoning ,and forensic linguists interested in the use of language in judicial settings.

This book introduces into the problems of Legal Linguistics. It starts with the most fundamental legal-linguistic question, i.e. how law is created and applied with linguistic means. In breaking down this vast question, the book identifies the linguistically relevant aspects of language use, especially its terminology, and scrutinizes the most significant legal-linguistic operations such as the legal argumentation, the legal interpretation, and the legal translation. Based on case analyses, it canvasses the language use strategies that are most instrumental in the developing of professionally convincing legal argumentation, primarily around terminological units. Towards the background of these and other linguistic operations in law, the book reflects upon some practical problems related to the regulation of language use and the emergence of the global law.

This book describes law from the perspective of its language. The author proposes a theory of the legal language as language used in legally relevant communicational situations. He focuses on legal-linguistic operations such as legal argumentation and legal interpretation that steer the legal discourse.

Linguistics and Law offers a clear and concise introduction to making sense of the law through linguistics. Drawing on lexical semantics, syntax, and pragmatics to interpret both written and spoken laws, this book: addresses how to interpret legal documents such as contracts, statutes, constitutional provisions and trademarks; provides thorough analyses of "language crimes" including solicitation, perjury, defamation, and conspiracy, as well as talk between police and criminal suspects; analyzes the Miranda warning in depth; tackles the question of whether there is a "language" of the law; draws on real-life case studies to aid understanding. Written in an approachable, conversational style and aimed at undergraduate students with little or no prior knowledge of linguistics or law, this book is essential reading for those approaching this topic for the first time.

This book examines legal language as a language for special purposes, evaluating the functions and characteristics of legal language and the terminology of law. Using examples drawn from major and lesser legal languages, it examines the major legal languages themselves, beginning with Latin through German, French, Spanish and English. This second edition has been fully revised, updated and enlarged. A new chapter on legal Spanish takes into account the increasing importance of the language, and a new section explores the use (in legal circles) of the two variants of the Norwegian language. All chapters have been thoroughly updated and include more detailed footnote referencing. The work will be a valuable resource for students, researchers, and practitioners in the areas of legal history and theory, comparative law, semiotics, and linguistics. It will also be of interest to legal translators and terminologists.