[LOL] MIDTERMS EXAM

• Language


  A tool to interact or communicate, a means to convey thoughts, ideas, concepts, or even a feeling
• Language functions


  • Can be viewed from different angles, such as speakers, listeners, topics, codes, and conversation purpose
• Language as a communication device


  A means of communication between members of the community in the form of symbols of sounds produced by the speech organ
• Roles of language as a communication tool


  • Tool to interact with others
  • Reflects a person's level of education
  • Indicates authority
  • As the force of law
  • Attract the customer
  • Indicates a person's social standing
• Language and law


  Also referred to as forensic linguistics, an area in which the research, principles, and methods of the discipline of linguistics are applied to legal contexts
• Areas of language and the law

  • Statutory language, courtroom discourse, translation, and interpretation in multilingual contexts
  • Language and the criminal justice system, including police interviews, undercover sting operations, courtroom testimony, and confessions
  • Language evidence in civil cases such as trademarks, contracts, copyright, discrimination, and product warning labels
  • Other legal cases in which language is often the primary evidence, such as authorship analysis and speaker identification
• 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 language of law


  • 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
• Technical language of law

  • Legal terms often have meanings different from those they bear in non-legal contexts of use (Schauer)
• Approaches to the law in contemporary legal science


  • Linguistic approach
  • Axiological approach
  • Sociological approach
  • Psychological approach
• Linguistic approach


  Perceives the law as a collection of linguistic acts (utterances), such as norms or provisions
• Axiological approach


  Perceives the law as an expression of values which are regarded as prior and independent from the law in their existence
• Sociological approach


  Conceives of the law as a social phenomenon, such as acts of social agents, social relations or social institutions
• Psychological approach


  Regards the law as a psychological phenomenon, existing first of all in human beings' minds, treating the law as a fiction or a 'group illusion'
• Forensic linguistics

  The use of linguistic evidence in the judicial process, usually in the form of expert evidence from a linguist
• Legal language


  The language of and related to law and legal process, a variety of language appropriate to the legal situations of use
• Factors that make legal language difficult

  • Differences in legal cultures and legal systems
  • Legal language is sui generis ("of its own kind")
  • Peculiar writing conventions like unusual sentence structures, punctuation, foreign phrases, unusual pronouns, unusual set phrases, technical vocabulary, archaic words, impersonal constructions, use of modal like shall, multiple negation, long and complex, and poor organization
  • Legal lexicon is full of archaic words, formal and ritualistic usage, word strings, common words with uncommon meanings and words of over-precision
  • Complex structures, passive voice, multiple negations and prepositional phrases
• Features of English and Albanian legal language

  • Impersonal style with extensive use of declarative sentences
  • Very long sentences
  • Flexible or vague language
  • Many words with legal meanings different from ordinary meanings (legal homonyms)
• Legal interpretation


  Differs from ordinary understanding, as courts often look to the intent of the speakers (legislative intent) rather than just the word or sentence meaning
• Types of legal writing


  • Academic legal writing
  • Judicial legal writing
  • Legislative legal writing
  • Everyday interaction on legal themes
• The Corpus Juris Civilis was written mostly in Latin, the language of Roman law, even though the Byzantine language of administration was Greek
• Latin was long the predominant language of statutes and treaties in the legal sphere, and Latin words and phrases continue to be used in civil law
• Examples of Latin legal terms and maxims


  • Causa
  • Ex aequo et bono
  • Culpa in contrahendo
  • Jus soli
  • Jus sanguinis
  • Pacta Sunt Servanda
  • Nulla Poene Sine Lege
  • In Dubio Pro Reo
• The jus commune, or "common law", consisted of canon law, customary and feudal law, and the lex mercatoria or law merchant, which were common to much of Europe
• The Sachsenspiegel was a compilation of Saxon law that was composed in both Latin and the Germanic Saxon language
• In France, the north became known as the pays de coutumes (the land of customary law) and the south as the pays de droit écrit (the land of written—mostly Roman—law)
• Codification


  Converting customs into statutory law by writing them down and enacting them as statutes, organized by subject matter into a published code
• The French Civil Code strove to unify and reform French law while repealing all former law, and the German Civil Code of 1896 was based on Roman law but incorporated native Germanic elements
• The widespread adoption of the Code Napoléon promoted the use of French legal concepts and terminology in many countries
• The Roman retreat from Britain left a power vacuum that was exploited by the Angles, Saxons, and other Germanic settlers, whose related languages eventually merged into what we now know as English
• Landrecht was ultimately deemed a failure. Roman law and the French civil code were both influential.
• When Germany was unified in the nineteenth century, legal scholars drafted a new civil code that was based on Roman law, but incorporating native Germanic elements. Their efforts ultimately produced the Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch, or German Civil Code of 1896.
• The widespread adoption of the Code Napoléon also promoted the use of French legal concepts and terminology.
• The French high court (Cour de Cassation) was imitated in many of those countries, and as a result Belgium has a Hof van Cassatie and Italy has a Corte de Cassazione.
• Peoples who influenced the development of the common law

  • Celts
  • Romans
  • Anglo-Saxons
  • Danes
• The Roman retreat left a power vacuum of sorts, which the Angles, Saxons, and other Germanic warriors and settlers from the continent quickly exploited. Their related languages eventually merged into one, which we now refer to as Anglo-Saxon, or Old English.
• The Anglo-Saxons were not literate at the time and their law was entirely customary. Legal decisions were often made by a type of popular assembly, sometimes called moots.
• Oaths were often used to decide cases. The words of the oath were fixed and had to be recited verbatim, without stammering, or the person would lose his case.
• Several of the Anglo-Saxon kings issued codes of law, and some private legal transactions (wills and transfers of land) were also memorialized in writing. Many of these texts were drafted in Latin, but others were in Old English.
• Words relating to courts and trials are almost entirely of French origin: action, appeal, attorney, bailiff, bar, claim, complaint, counsel, and court are but a few examples.