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• Language means of communication between members of the community in the form of symbols of sound produced by the speech organ.
• The normative language of law derives from the fact that law has the basic function in society of guiding human behavior and regulating human relations.
• Performative are Words are not only something we use to say things, we also use them to do things. The performative use of language is not exclusive to law, but law relies heavily on performative utterances.
• Legal language as a technical language often operates in a context that makes legal terms have meanings different from those they bear in non-legal contexts of use. (Schauer)
• Linguistic Approach perceives the law as a collection of linguistic acts (utterances).
• two basic types of the legal language: a language of legal texts (law-making instruments), and a language of legal practice and legal science.
• Axiological Approach Perceives the law as an expression of values which usually are regarded as prior and independent from the law in their existence.
• Idealism – a philosophical standpoint that affirms the objective existence of values and other nonmaterial beings.
• Sociological Approach conceives of the law as a social phenomenon. According to this approach, the law might be understood as e.g. acts of social agents (social practices), social relations or social institutions.
• FORENSIC LINGUISTICS - This is used in a general sense to refer to any interface between language and law, thus including analysis of the language used within the legal system
• The language of the law or the legal language refers to the language of and related to law and legal process
• sui generis means “of its own kind”
• Legal lexicon is full of archaic words, formal and ritualistic usage, word strings, common words with uncommon meanings and words of over-precision.
• The prominent feature of legal style is very long sentences.
• As Tiersma notes, “flexible and abstract language is typical of constitutions which are ideally written to endure over time”
• Action: is not only a physical movement but legally it is also a lawsuit;
• Aggravation: not merely something that annoys you but also a reason to sentence someone to death according to death penalty law
• Ankesë (complaint/appeal): is not only a simple complaint but also an appeal against a Court Decision
• With statutory interpretation, courts often look to the intent of the speakers (legislative intent). There is a symbiotic relationship between encoding and decoding language
• kinds of legal writingacademic legal writing as in law journals, (b) judicial legal writing as in court judgments, and (c) legislative legal writing as in laws, regulations, contracts, and treaties
• kinds of legal writing: (a) academic legal writing (b) judicial legal writing, and (c) legislative legal writing
• jurists were men of means who took it upon themselves to study the law and to offer legal opinions to litigants, magistrates, and judges.
• Corpus Juris Civilis is a book written by Justinian meaning the “body of civil law”
• Digest - containing writings by the jurists
• Code - which contained various imperial enactments
• Novels or Justinian’s own enactments
• Institutes a type of textbook for students to learn the law
• Latin was long the predominant language of statutes and treaties.
• pacta sunt servanda means contacts must be carried out
• nulla poene sine lege means no punishment without law
• in dubio pro reo means in case of doubt, favor the accused
• Canon law—the law developed by the Catholic church—applied to marriage and family
• Customary and feudal law were important with respect to property and succession
• commerce was governed by what is called the lex mercatoria or law merchant
• known as the jus commune, or “common law,” since it was common to much of Europe
• Sachsenspiegel a compilation of Saxon law that was composed in both Latin and the Germanic Saxon language.
• Jeremy Bentham who therefore advocated converting customs into statutory law by means of codification.
• The statutes would be logically organized by subject matter and would be published in the form of a code that contained all of the law on a specified topic
• legal scholars drafted a new civil code that was based on Roman law, but incorporating native Germanic elements and produced the Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch, or German Civil Code of 1896
• the French high court is Cour de Cassation