Legal Language

Portada
University of Chicago Press, 1999 - 314 páginas
Peter Tiersma's history of legal language slices through the polysyllabic thicket of legalese. He shows to what extent legalese is a product of its past, when Anglo-Saxon mercenaries, Latin-speaking missionaries, Scandinavian raiders, and Norman invaders all left their marks on the language that lawyers use today. Tiersma suggests, however, that history alone provides an inadequate explanation for the peculiarities of legal language.

Dentro del libro

Contenido

Introduction
1
Origins
7
Celts AngloSaxons and Danes
9
The Norman Conquest and the Rise of French
19
The Resurgence of English
35
The Nature of Legal Language
49
Talking Like a Lawyer
51
The Quest for Precision
71
What Makes Legal Language Difficult to Understand?
201
Plain English
209
Communicating with the Jury
229
Conclusion
239
An AngloSaxon Legal Document
243
A Case Report in Law French
245
A Modern Will
247
Excerpts from Jury Instructions in People v Simpson
249

The Legal Lexicon
87
Interpretation and Meaning
115
Variation
133
In the Courtroom
145
Pleadings Constructing the Legal Narrative
147
Testimony and Truth
153
Completing the Story
181
Reforming the Language of the Law
197
Original Citibank Promissory Note
255
Revised Citibank Promissory Note
259
Notes
261
Select Bibliography
289
Word and Phrase Index
295
General Index
301
Derechos de autor

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Acerca del autor (1999)

Peter M. Tiersma (1952-2014) was professor at Loyola Law School, Los Angeles.

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