Legal Linguistics

1. LelijaSočanac, SchoolofLaw, Zagreb, Croatia Legal Linguistics

2. Preview • Lawandlegalsystems • Legal communication: thepursuitofprecision • Languageandpower • Tellingthe story: narrativesinthecourtroom • Communicationproblemsinthelegal system • Languageanddisadvantagebeforethelaw • Legal translationandcourtinterpreting • Law on language • Linguisticevidence: forensiclinguistics

3. Aboutlaw • Lawprovides a frameworkwithinwhichwemanageourdailylives, includingourfamily, housing, transport, studyandwork • Lawrepresents a society’svalue system, imposesrightsandobligations, proscribesandpunishesbehaviourthatgoesagainst a society’snorms; suchvalues are notuniversal • Law – a system ofrulesimposedbythestateandenforcedbycourts

4. Legal systems • Major elementsofmodernlegalsystems: • 1) Legislation: Parliament • 2) Judiciary: a court system • 3) The police

5. Types of law • Law • - national (municipal) • - international

6. National law • Public (involves the State or government) • Private (disputes between private individuals or businesses)

7. Publiclaw • Civil (administrative, constitutional, taxlaw) • Criminal

8. Major legalsystemsoftheworld • Traditionallaw • Civil law • Commonlaw • Islamiclaw • Hindu law • Chineselaw

9. Customary (traditional) law • Lawdevelopedlongbeforewriting as partoftheregulatory system ofsocieties • Suchorallegalsystems – predecessorsofallmodernlegalsystems • Customarylaw – localandfragmented

10. Civil law • based on Roman law – the most importantcodification: Justinian’scode (Corpusiuriscivilis) – adoptedby European lawyers, providingiuscomune – thecommonlawof Europe writtenin Latin • theemergenceofnation-states – nationalcodesoflaw (e.g. NapoleonicCode) • Inquisitorial procedure (judgesquestionwitnessesandexamineevidence; muchoftheevidence – inthewrittenform; judges base theirdecisions on writtenevidenceand a summarypreparedby a courtofficial)

11. Commonlaw (Anglo-American law) • Developedafterthe Norman Conquest (1066) – a centralized system ofcourts (Royal CourtsofJustice); legallanguages: Latin andFrench • Based on judicialdecisionswhich are binding for future similarcases (precedents) • Adversarial procedure: a ritualizedbattlebetweentheprosecutionandthedefence, trying to prove conflictingcases to thejury • Courtroomproceedingsdependpredominantlyuponoralratherthanwrittenevidence (witnesses are subject to oralexaminationincourt)

12. Shari’ahlaw (theIslamiclaw) • Based on Qur’an, supplementedbyIslamicscholarship • In manyIslamicsocieties – nottheonly system oflaw – some haveversionsofcommonlawor civil law, sometimeswithparallel system ofIslamiccourtswhichhandlefamilylawand moral issues • In otherstates, thecriminallawis a formofShari’ah, whilecontractlawhasbeenadaptedfrom Roman law

13. Lawandlanguage • Law – anoverwhelminglylinguisticinstitution • Laws – codedinlanguageandlegalconcepts are accessibleonlythroughlanguage • Court casesand police interviews take place throughlanguage • Contractswhichregulaterelationshipsbetweenpartners, employersandprovidersofgoodsandservices

14. Legal communication • Non-verbalsemioticsystems • Linguisticsystems • Bothsystems – used to negotiatemeaning

15. Linguisticlevels: meaning • Pronunciationorwriting (grapho-phoniclevel: letters, gapsbetweenwords, punctuation, capitalization; layoutofthepage: paragraphs, headingsetc) • Morphology: contentmorphemes, functionmorphemes • Syntax: productivity, compositionality, recursion (coordination, embedding) • Semantics • Pragmatics (context; immediate (situational), wider (social) • Discourse (coherence, cohesion, genre– discoursetype) • Sociolinguistics (register, variation)

16. Meaning • 1) propositionalmeaning, • 2)social/interpersonalmeaningand • 3) functionalmeaning (speechacts) • Negotiatingmeaninginvolves a construal (interpretation) ofthesocialandphysicalworldwhichispragmaticallyrelated to socio-culturalandphysicalcontext

17. Meaning • Anotheraspectistheworld-view/knowledgeoftheparticipantsinthecommunication, includingtheir • 1) socialschemasand • 2) physicalworldschemas, • i.e. theirpre-existingsharedanddifferentunderstandingsofsocialandmaterialworlds; • animportantpartofthisknowledgeconsistsofcommunicativeability

18. Model ofcommunication: conveyingmeaning

19. Legal linguistics/Forensiclinguistics • Linguistiquejuridique (jurilinguistique) • Rechtslinguistics • Juryslingwistyka (Polish) • Pravovaia lingvistika (Russian)

20. Legal linguistics • 1. Thestudyofthelanguageofthelaw, includingthelanguageoflegaldocumentsandthelanguageofcourts • 2. Thestudy, theprovisionandimprovementofprofessionallegalinterpretingandtranslationservices • 3. Thealleviationofdisadvantageproducedbylanguageinthelegalprocess • 4. Theprovisionofforensiclinguisticevidencebased on thebestavailablelinguisticexpertise • 5. Theprovisionoflinguisticexpertiseinissuesoflegaldraftingandinterpretation, includingplainlanguagedrafting

21. LanguageandtheLaw • Legal language • 1) written: legislation, judgments, contracts, wills • 2) spoken: languageofthecourtroom, police investigations, consultationsbetweenlawyersandtheirclients

22. Themoveintoliteracy • Theprocessofcodificationinvolvedthelanguageofthelawmovingfromlargelyinteractiveoraldisputes, whichoperatedwithlanguagedrawnfromeverydayspeech, to a specializedtechnicalstyleoflanguage, using a fullrangeofresourcesofferedbywriting • Writtentexts – betterplannedandlessdependent on thecontext; a continuumfromleastplannedandhighlycontextualized to most plannedandcontextreduced

23. Consequencesofplanning • Increasedexplicitnessinthelogicalstructure • Increasedsyntacticcomplexity • A highlevelofautonomyoflegaltexts (draftingandinterpretationoflegislation): plainmeaningrule (textualism) • Emotionallyneutralandimpersonaltone; more passives

24. Standardizinglegalfunctions • The development ofliteracy – ability to standardize • Standardizedwaysofperforminglegalfunctions, e.g. drawingup a will • Standardizationofthestepsthroughwhich a legalfunction must pass for itscompletion – development of standard legalgenres • Creating a legalregister: development, recordingandlong-term use andstandardizationoflegalterms

25. Effectsofstandardization • In law, if a formofwordsisadmitted as adequatelymeeting a particularlegalobjective, e.g. a particularwordingisacceptedincourt as constituting a bindingpromise, thisisgoodreason to reusethewording for subsequestpromises • Oncelegalactions are committed to paper, theycanbeconsultedandrelevantelementsreproduced • FormBooks – provide triedandtestedformsofwords, whichlawyerscanpiecetogether to construct operative documents

26. Effectsofstandardization • Standard waysofconstructinglegal operative documents, e.g. a will • Development of standard legalgenres • Consistencyandconservatism • Persistanceofarchaiclanguage

27. Writtenlegaltexts • Operative documentscreateormodifylegalrelations: legislationacts, orders, statutes), judgmentsandprivatedocuments (contracts, wills) • Expositorydocumentsexplainthelaw (a letter to a client, office memorandum, textbooks) • Persuasivedocuments – submissionsdesigned to persuadethecourt

28. Legal transcription – theInteractionofWrittenandSpokenLanguage • Themoveintowriting – notjust a historicalphenomenon • Most recordkeepinginlegalsettings – written, while most proceedingsincommonlawsystems – spoken • Itiscommon for spokenlanguage to betranscribed, i.e. transformedintowrittenlanguage • A transcriptinvolvestheconversionofspokenintowrittenlanguage: impossible to accuratelyrecordallsounddetailsofspeech (pitch/intonation, voicequality, accent, pauses, pace)

29. Legal transcription • Typed police recordsofinterviews • Court records • Most transcripts – heavilyweighedtowardsreadability at theexpenseofaccuracy • Transformingspeechinto a readablewrittenformcaninvolveradicalchange • Therecordingofspeech on audio and video tape, digitalrecordings: post-literate communication

30. Writtenlanguage: thePursuitofPrecision • Decontextualization – legaltextsshouldbemadeclearandexplicitusingtheinternalresourcesofthetextitself • Theneed for legaldocuments to be as precise as possible • Precision – notnecessarilyextremeclarity – itmayinvolve some vaguenessorflexibility • A mainissueinlegalinterpretation – the ‘fit’ betweenan operative documentand a particularcase

31. ThePursuitofPrecision • Thecombinationofdecontextualizationandtheattempt to communicate no more and no lessthantheintendedmeaningrequiresthatlegaltextsseek to becompletelyinternallyexplicitandunambiguous

32. Precision – legalterms • ThetechnicalmeaningofwordsintheCommonLaw system hasoftenstablizedandclarifiedthroughyearsofinterpretationandprecedent • However, itisnecessary to distinguishbetweenlegaltermswhich are more accurateor more efficientwhenreferring to legalconceptsfromin-grouplanguageusedbylawyers for interpersonalmotives (legaljargon)

33. Legal LexiconinCommonLaw • Use ofarchaictextualdeictics (forthwith, hereafter, herein, thereafter) • Wordsof Latin (habeascorpus, obiterdicta, ratiodecidendi)or Norman Frenchorigin(estoppel, judge, parole, venue) • Termsfromdifferentlanguageswhichoriginallyreferred to the same concept, such as child (OE), infant (L/F) andminor (L) permitthefunctionalspecializationoftheterms – differentspreadof age inthisexample • Doublets (binomials) andtriplets: will (OE) and testament (L/F); give (OE) devise (F) andbequeath(OE)

34. Legal Lexicon • Abbreviatons (UN) • Propernames (Anton Pillerinjunction– orderwhichallowedthe police to enterpremisesin civil cases; Miranda warning– caution, i.e. theright to silenceinthe U.S.) • Problemsofpolysemy • Ordinarywordswithspecialmeanings –dangerouslymisleading (e.g. consideration) • Definitions

35. Legal Draftingandinterpretation • 1) The same meaningthe same formprinciple (e.g. ifthenounsshadowandshade are usedinan operative document, theywouldbeexpected to refer to differentphenomena, ratherthanbeingstylisticvariants

36. Canonsofconstruction • Eiusdemgeneris–when a general term follows a list of particular terms, the general term only applies to things similar to the particular terms. For example, in the list "sun, moon, and other large objects", the phrase "other large objects" only includes celestial bodies, not houses and elephants • Expressiouniusestexclusioalterius:when a legal document includes a list, anything not in that list is assumed to be purposely excluded • Noscitur a sociis- the meaning of a doubtful word can be derived from its association with other words – wordsshouldbeinterpretedaccording to thelinguisticandtextualcontextinwhichtheyoccur

37. Sentence structure • Placingmodifiersnext to the element they are modifying • Thelinguisticscope (p. 57) • Extremesyntacticcomplexity (coordination, embedding) • Logicalstructureofthekind: if X, then Z shall (not) do/be Y

38. SpeechActs • SpeechActs – sometimesreferred to as ‘functions’ • Locution, illocution, perlocution • Performatives, constatives • Performatives – importantinunderstanding operative documents • Hereby – usedinlegallanguage to make itexplicitthat a speechactisbeingperformed: „I herebypromise to pay…;

39. SpeechActs • Explicitmarkingof a speechact – noticeableintheenactingformulae at thebeginningoflegislation • UK • Be itenactedbythe Queen ‘s most ExcellentMajesty, byandwiththeadviceandconsentoftheLordsSpiritualandTemporal, andCommons, inthispresentParliamentassembled, andbytheauthorityofthe same, as follows…

40. Legal Discourse • Genres • Reference

41. Reference • Pronouns: in operative documentspronouns are avoided (pursuitofprecision, avoidanceofambiguity): repetition • Defined pro-forms (referentialindices): settingupspecialmeanings for wordsandexpressionsbymeansofdefinitions, sothatthesewordscanbeusedthroughoutthetext • Core nounwithdeictic (e.g. thetermssovariedrefersbackto thosetermshavebeenvariedundersection 17 – termsis a corenoun, andsovariedisused as a deicticexpression to copyvariedundersection 17.

42. Interpretation • 1) Textualsemantics – examiningthewordingofan operative document at word, phrase, or sentence level; wordsandgrammar are notgiventheireverydayconstruction, but one based on legaltraditions • 2) Thelegislator’sintentions (difficult to determineifnotmadeexplicitinthewordingofthe statute) • 3) applyingsocietalstandards (judgesapplytheirown moral standardswhenreachingtheirdecisions, eventhoughtheymaybemasked; judgesprefer to writetheirjudgementsusingbasisofinterpretation (1), whenthey are actuallyoftenmaking moral judgements, usingbasis (3)

43. KnowledgeIssues • Knowledgedifferencesbetweenlawyersandnon-lawyers • Lawyers – operatingwithin a differentconceptualanddiscoursal ‘frame’ – theyconstruct, discussandpresenteventsin a waythatdiffersfrom, andmaybeunintelligible to non-lawyers • In a courtroom, thismayresultin a failureofcommunicationwithjurors • Throughthecenturies, lawyershaveevolvedtheirownwayofreasoning

44. ThePursuitofPrecision • A significantdrivingforceinthedraftingandinterpretationoflegaldocuments • Theircomplexity – a reflectionofthepurposeofsuchdocuments: to defineandcontrol human behaviourinanunambiguousway • Whenthepursuitofprecisioncombineswithextremeconservatismandarchaism, theresultmaybelanguagethatis at best complex, and at worstarcaneandunintelligible to non-lawyers

45. CommunicationDifficultiesinthe Legal System • ‘Ignoranceofthelawis no defence’ • Ifthelawispresentedin a languagethatcannotbeunderstoodbythepeople to whomitapplies, thiscanlead to graveinjustice • More intelligiblelegallanguagewouldhelpnon-lawyers to understandandappreciatethewaythelegal system works, to understandbasiclegalconcepts, to understandandprotecttheirrights, and to understandandparticipate more meaningfullyinlegalproceedings

46. Theincomprehensibilityoflegallanguage: sourcesofdifficulty • Linguisticfeatures: distance fromcontext, technicalelementsoflegallanguage, the use ofinterpersonalpower • Passiveswithoutan agent; extremelylongand complex sentences; nominalization: thedensityofinformationincreasescomprehensiondifficulty, as well as syntacticcomplexity • Archaisms, loanwords, doubletsandtriplets • Thegrammarof operative documentsfollowsdifferentrulesfromeverydaylanguage, whichcreates a likelihoodofmiscommunication • Doubleormultiplenegatives • Conceptualframe: lackofsharedknowledge

47. CommunicationDifficultiesinthe Legal System • Sourcesofcommunicationdifficulties: • 1) non-lawyerscannotunderstandthelanguageofthelaw • 2) lawyerscannotunderstandthelanguageofpeoplewho do notspeakthe standard languageofthelegal system

48. PlainLanguageMovement • Lord Wolf’sreforms(1998) • Plaintiff> claimant • Pleading > statementofcase • In camera > inprivate • Anton Pillerorder > searchorder

49. Juryinstructions • A tensionbetweenthelanguageappropriate to thelayjuryaudience, andthelanguageappropriate to thespecialistlegalaudience – twoaudiencedilemma • Writtenlanguagepresentedinoralform – communicationbreakdown • Lackof a sharedconceptualframe • Jurors do notunderstand a largeportionofthejudicialinstructionsdelivered to them; emphasis on legalaccuracywithminimalattentionpaid to comprehensibility

50. Juryinstructions • Notionsthatjurors are likely to misunderstand: • Reasonabledoubt • Presumptionofinnocence • Burdenofproof