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Lelija Sočanac , School of Law , Zagreb, Croatia. Legal Linguistics. Preview. Law and legal systems Legal communication : the pursuit of precision Language and power Telling the story: narratives in the courtroom Communication problems in the legal system
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LelijaSočanac, SchoolofLaw, Zagreb, Croatia Legal Linguistics
Preview • Lawandlegalsystems • Legal communication: thepursuitofprecision • Languageandpower • Tellingthe story: narrativesinthecourtroom • Communicationproblemsinthelegal system • Languageanddisadvantagebeforethelaw • Legal translationandcourtinterpreting • Law on language • Linguisticevidence: forensiclinguistics
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
Legal systems • Major elementsofmodernlegalsystems: • 1) Legislation: Parliament • 2) Judiciary: a court system • 3) The police
Types of law • Law • - national (municipal) • - international
National law • Public (involves the State or government) • Private (disputes between private individuals or businesses)
Publiclaw • Civil (administrative, constitutional, taxlaw) • Criminal
Major legalsystemsoftheworld • Traditionallaw • Civil law • Commonlaw • Islamiclaw • Hindu law • Chineselaw
Customary (traditional) law • Lawdevelopedlongbeforewriting as partoftheregulatory system ofsocieties • Suchorallegalsystems – predecessorsofallmodernlegalsystems • Customarylaw – localandfragmented
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)
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)
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
Lawandlanguage • Law – anoverwhelminglylinguisticinstitution • Laws – codedinlanguageandlegalconcepts are accessibleonlythroughlanguage • Court casesand police interviews take place throughlanguage • Contractswhichregulaterelationshipsbetweenpartners, employersandprovidersofgoodsandservices
Legal communication • Non-verbalsemioticsystems • Linguisticsystems • Bothsystems – used to negotiatemeaning
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)
Meaning • 1) propositionalmeaning, • 2)social/interpersonalmeaningand • 3) functionalmeaning (speechacts) • Negotiatingmeaninginvolves a construal (interpretation) ofthesocialandphysicalworldwhichispragmaticallyrelated to socio-culturalandphysicalcontext
Meaning • Anotheraspectistheworld-view/knowledgeoftheparticipantsinthecommunication, includingtheir • 1) socialschemasand • 2) physicalworldschemas, • i.e. theirpre-existingsharedanddifferentunderstandingsofsocialandmaterialworlds; • animportantpartofthisknowledgeconsistsofcommunicativeability
Legal linguistics/Forensiclinguistics • Linguistiquejuridique (jurilinguistique) • Rechtslinguistics • Juryslingwistyka (Polish) • Pravovaia lingvistika (Russian)
Legal linguistics • 1. Thestudyofthelanguageofthelaw, includingthelanguageoflegaldocumentsandthelanguageofcourts • 2. Thestudy, theprovisionandimprovementofprofessionallegalinterpretingandtranslationservices • 3. Thealleviationofdisadvantageproducedbylanguageinthelegalprocess • 4. Theprovisionofforensiclinguisticevidencebased on thebestavailablelinguisticexpertise • 5. Theprovisionoflinguisticexpertiseinissuesoflegaldraftingandinterpretation, includingplainlanguagedrafting
LanguageandtheLaw • Legal language • 1) written: legislation, judgments, contracts, wills • 2) spoken: languageofthecourtroom, police investigations, consultationsbetweenlawyersandtheirclients
Themoveintoliteracy • Theprocessofcodificationinvolvedthelanguageofthelawmovingfromlargelyinteractiveoraldisputes, whichoperatedwithlanguagedrawnfromeverydayspeech, to a specializedtechnicalstyleoflanguage, using a fullrangeofresourcesofferedbywriting • Writtentexts – betterplannedandlessdependent on thecontext; a continuumfromleastplannedandhighlycontextualized to most plannedandcontextreduced
Consequencesofplanning • Increasedexplicitnessinthelogicalstructure • Increasedsyntacticcomplexity • A highlevelofautonomyoflegaltexts (draftingandinterpretationoflegislation): plainmeaningrule (textualism) • Emotionallyneutralandimpersonaltone; more passives
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
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
Effectsofstandardization • Standard waysofconstructinglegal operative documents, e.g. a will • Development of standard legalgenres • Consistencyandconservatism • Persistanceofarchaiclanguage
Writtenlegaltexts • Operative documentscreateormodifylegalrelations: legislationacts, orders, statutes), judgmentsandprivatedocuments (contracts, wills) • Expositorydocumentsexplainthelaw (a letter to a client, office memorandum, textbooks) • Persuasivedocuments – submissionsdesigned to persuadethecourt
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)
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
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
ThePursuitofPrecision • Thecombinationofdecontextualizationandtheattempt to communicate no more and no lessthantheintendedmeaningrequiresthatlegaltextsseek to becompletelyinternallyexplicitandunambiguous
Precision – legalterms • ThetechnicalmeaningofwordsintheCommonLaw system hasoftenstablizedandclarifiedthroughyearsofinterpretationandprecedent • However, itisnecessary to distinguishbetweenlegaltermswhich are more accurateor more efficientwhenreferring to legalconceptsfromin-grouplanguageusedbylawyers for interpersonalmotives (legaljargon)
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)
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
Legal Draftingandinterpretation • 1) The same meaningthe same formprinciple (e.g. ifthenounsshadowandshade are usedinan operative document, theywouldbeexpected to refer to differentphenomena, ratherthanbeingstylisticvariants
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
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
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…;
SpeechActs • Explicitmarkingof a speechact – noticeableintheenactingformulae at thebeginningoflegislation • UK • Be itenactedbythe Queen ‘s most ExcellentMajesty, byandwiththeadviceandconsentoftheLordsSpiritualandTemporal, andCommons, inthispresentParliamentassembled, andbytheauthorityofthe same, as follows…
Legal Discourse • Genres • Reference
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.
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)
KnowledgeIssues • Knowledgedifferencesbetweenlawyersandnon-lawyers • Lawyers – operatingwithin a differentconceptualanddiscoursal ‘frame’ – theyconstruct, discussandpresenteventsin a waythatdiffersfrom, andmaybeunintelligible to non-lawyers • In a courtroom, thismayresultin a failureofcommunicationwithjurors • Throughthecenturies, lawyershaveevolvedtheirownwayofreasoning
ThePursuitofPrecision • A significantdrivingforceinthedraftingandinterpretationoflegaldocuments • Theircomplexity – a reflectionofthepurposeofsuchdocuments: to defineandcontrol human behaviourinanunambiguousway • Whenthepursuitofprecisioncombineswithextremeconservatismandarchaism, theresultmaybelanguagethatis at best complex, and at worstarcaneandunintelligible to non-lawyers
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
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
CommunicationDifficultiesinthe Legal System • Sourcesofcommunicationdifficulties: • 1) non-lawyerscannotunderstandthelanguageofthelaw • 2) lawyerscannotunderstandthelanguageofpeoplewho do notspeakthe standard languageofthelegal system
PlainLanguageMovement • Lord Wolf’sreforms(1998) • Plaintiff> claimant • Pleading > statementofcase • In camera > inprivate • Anton Pillerorder > searchorder
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
Juryinstructions • Notionsthatjurors are likely to misunderstand: • Reasonabledoubt • Presumptionofinnocence • Burdenofproof