Language and Law

LSP and Legal English Read the text and answer the following questions: What are languages for specific purposes? When did they develop and why? How does legal English differ from general English? Which are characteristics of Legal English?

Legal language Legal language is a language used by the legal profession, BUT it is not aimed solely at internal communication within the profession because it governs all areas of social life.

LSP and Legal English Legal language differs from other languages for specific purposes in the following ways: 1. It is very old and it goes back to the beginnings of organised society 2. It is not used only for internal professional communication as it affects the life of all citizens (Plain English for Law movement) 3. It can absorb terms from any other professional language

Characteristics of Legal English Archaisms Borrowings Collocations Ordinary words with special meaning Doubles and triplets Pro-forms Subordination, nominalisation, passivization, multiple negation Special usage of modal verbs

Decide whether the following statements are true (T) or false (F) Decide whether the following statements are true (T) or false (F). If false, provide the correct information. Term Meaning T F collocation a sequence of words that co-occur more often than would be expected by chance doublet Two or more words having the same form modal verb/auxiliary a type of verb that is used to indicate modality: likelihood, ability, permission, and obligation pro-form a type of function word or expression that stands for (expresses the same content as) another word, phrase, clause or sentence where the meaning is recoverable from the context. synonym A word that has the same form as another word syntax The identification, analysis and description of the structure of a given language's words

Characteristics of Legal English - examples James II's flight in 1688 had given Parliament the opportunity to alter the succession to the English throne and to elect a King. Parliament offered the throne to William and Mary. The 1689 Bill of Rights legislated that the succession to the throne would pass first to any children of James II's two daughters Mary and Anne before going to any children born to William by a second marriage. Mary died in 1694.

Act of Settlement In June 1701 Parliament hoped to resolve the problem of succession by passing the Act of Settlement. It confirmed the provision of the Bill of Rights that no Catholic or person with a Catholic spouse could rule. The aim of the Act was also to strengthen the guarantees for ensuring a parliamentary system of government. The Act of Settlement further restricted the powers and prerogatives of the Crown. Under the Act, parliamentary consent had to be given for the Sovereign to engage in war or leave the country, and judges were to hold office on good conduct and not at Royal pleasure - thus establishing judicial independence. 

Read an extract from The Act of Settlement (p. 6-7) Read an extract from The Act of Settlement (p. 6-7). Which characteristics of legal English can you find? (Consider the lexical elements: technical terms, legal doublets, collocations; also pay attention to syntax, punctuation, the use of capital letters…)

The Succession to the Crown Act (2013) The Succession to the Crown Act (2013) amended the provisions of the Bill of Rights and the Act of Settlement to end the system of male primogeniture, under which a younger son can displace an elder daughter in the line of succession. The Act applies to those born after 28 October 2011. The Act also ended the provisions by which those who marry Roman Catholics are disqualified from the line of succession.

Read The Succession to the Crown Act 2013 (p. 7) Read The Succession to the Crown Act 2013 (p. 7). In what ways does its style differ from that of The Act of Settlement 1700? Consider the lexical elements, punctuation, sentence structure, the text layout....

History of English https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEaSxhcns7Y 450-1100 AD Old English Angles, Saxons, Jutes Viking invasions Anglo-Saxon Latin Old Norse 1100-1500 AD Middle English Norman conquest Norman French 1500- Modern English Colonial expansion The rise of English as an international language

Sources of Legal English Anglo-Saxon period Legal Latin The Norman Conquest (French) Legislative attempts to change the language of the law into English

The Anglo-Saxon Period Although the legal system of England was barely developed during the Anglo-Saxon period, some legal terminology emerged, and some of these terms are still used today. From the ninth until the twelfth century, during the Viking occupation of the country, words were mainly borrowed from Scandinavian languages. Some of examples are Old Norwegian words such as gift, loan, sale and trust.

“Law” The word law derived from an Old Norse noun log, which meant “something laid or fixed”.

The Anglo-Saxon Period Verbal magic Precise language rituals Rhytmic expression Alliteration (still present in binary expressions) Inversion (to strengthen the impact)

Legal Latin With the spread of Christianity, oral legal communication was replaced by the use of drafting. As in the rest of Europe, only the elites were literate, so most of official documents were written down by the clergy. This, among other things, meant that they were written in Latin and that they were influenced by canon (ecclesiastical) law.

Rise of Law Latin In the 11th and 12th century, Latin was the language of legal document in England In this period common law system was created, and consequently many common law terms were originally formed in Latin.

The Norman Conquest The Norman Conquest in 1066 strongly influenced the English language in general, and particularly the language of the law. After the Conquest, the new king William I brought to England numerous noble families from Normandy. Linguistic situation in the country became complex, as common folk spoke English, the newcomers spoke French, and the written language was, as in the rest of Europe, primarily Latin.

William I William the Conqueror, the first Norman King of England who reigned from 1066 until his death in 1087, created 10 laws for the English people to abide by after the Battle of Hastings. Curia Regis

Law French Although it is frequently claimed that the Norman Conquest caused French to become the language of the law in England, the first law was actually promulgated in French in 1275. Soon after that French became the language of the legislature and judiciary. This situation continued for almost three centuries.

Law French Many words and phrases that were used during that time survived until the present day, such as numerous verbs connected with the judicial procedure: sue, plead, accuse, indict, arraign, depose, blame, arrest, seize, pledge, warrant, assail, assign, judge, condemn, convict, award, distrain, imprison, banish, acquit, pardon, as well as many criminal offences: felony, trespass, assault, arson, larceny, fraud, libel, slander, perjury and adultery.

Language of administration A significant number of terms connected with the government and administration also stem from this period and are of French origin: government, govern, administer, administration, crown, empire, reign, royal, authority, sovereign, majesty, court, council, parliament, assembly, statute, treaty, alliance, repeal, tax and so on.

Legislative attempts to change the language of the law French as the dominant language of the law caused huge problems for common English people who had any contact with the law. An uneducated person who had a case before the court could not understand what was being said, since all court proceedings were conducted in French. The Parliament of the United Kingdom tried to regulate the language of the law on three occasions. The first attempt was the famous Statute of Pleadings from 1362.

The Statute of Pleading (1362) The Statute of Pleading demanded that all court proceedings should be conducted in English, and official documents should be recorded in Latin (because French was largely unknown in the country) It was written in French. However, lawyers continued to use French in the court as the language of the elite, so even though statutes were passed in English, Freench remained the dominant language of the courts until the 17th century.

The second attempt (1650) The second attempt dates from the Puritan period, when in 1650 Cromwell's Parliament adopted the law (An Act for turning the Books of the Law, and all Proces and Proceedings in Courts of Justice, into English) that requested that all report-books of the resolutions of judges and other books of the law in England had to be written in English: „The Parliament have thought fit to Declare and Enact ...That all the Report-Books of the Resolutions of Judges, and other Books of the Law of England, shall be Translated into the English Tongue: And that from and after the First day of January, 1650, all Report-Books of the Resolutions of Judges, and all other Books of the Law of England, which shall be Printed, shall be in the English Tongue onely.”

Members of the legal profession were largely against this law, and consequently in 1660, after the Restoration, it was repealed and everything continued as before. With time, however, English became dominant in various types of legal documents, such as wills.

Rise of Legal English Wills began to be written in English in the 15th century Statutes were written in Latin until about 1300, in French until 1485, in English and French for a few years and in English alone from 1489

The Court of Justice Act (1731) Finally, in 1731 Parliament passed The Courts of Justice Act which required that all court proceedings and statutes had to be only in English, and not in Latin or French: “be it enacted...that all proceedings whatsoever in any courts of justice within that part of Great Britain called England, and in the court of exchequer in Scotland, and which concern the law and administration of justice, shall be in the English tongue and language only, and not in Latin or French, or any other tongue or language whatsoever...”

The end of trilingualiasm This law marks the end of trilingualism of the English legal profession marked by using Latin for written pleadings and legal records, English for hearing witnesses, and French for oral pleadings.

In conclusion It is important to understand how legal English evolved and how other languages influenced (and continue to influence) its development. A better insight into historical development enables a better understanding of some of the features of modern legal English and a better understanding of the way in which it is changing today.

Thank you for your attention!