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TABLE OF CONTENTS Foreword.................................................................................................... Foreword to the Finnish original............................................................... Table of contents......................................................................................... Alphabetic bibliography XIII Systematic bibliography XLV A General introduction: legal language and legal linguistics 1 The concept of legal language 3 2 Genres of legal language 5 2.1 Division into sub-genres 5 2.2 Related linguistic phenomena 6 2.2.1 Legal jargon 6 2.2.2 The counter-language of the criminal fraternity 7 3 Legal linguistics as a discipline............................................................... 8 3.1 The beginnings of interest in legal language 8 3.2 Legal linguistics today 10 3.3 Research topics and disciplines connected with legal linguistics 14 3.3.1 Overview: defining legal linguistics 14 3.3.2 Legal semiotics and legal symbolism 18 3.3.3 Legal informatics 20 3.4 The link with legal science 22 3.4.1 Legal science in general 22 3.4.2 Comparative law 24 3.4.3 Language law 26 3.4.4 Linguistic risk 28 4 The importance of legal linguistic knowledge......................................29 4.1 The viewpoint of related sciences 29 4.2 Practical lawyering 29 4.3 Translation 30 4.4 Lexicography and terminological work 31 5 Structure and content of this book¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿.32 5.1 Outline 32 5.2 Choice of legal languages examined 34 5.2.1 The reason for including legal Latin 34 5.2.2 The choice of modern legal languages 35 Global rivalry of the major legal languages 35 Rivalry of the major legal languages in the European Union 38 The Court of Justice of the European Communities ¿.. 40 Conclusion 41 B Legal language as a language for special purposes I FUNCTIONS OF LEGAL LANGUAGE 47 1 Importance of the theory of communication 47 2 Achieving Justice ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿...47 2.1 Speech acts and the legal order 47 2.2 Form as affirmation of speech acts 49 2.3 Semiotic acts 50 3 Transmission of legal messages 51 3.1 Communication theory and law 51 3.2 Interference in legal communication 52 3.2.1 Message incomplete 52 3.2.2 Message closed 52 3.2.3 Message ambiguous 54 3.2.4 Mutation of message content in transit 55 3.2.5 Signals impeding the message 57 3.2.6 Negative attitude of recipient 58 4 Strengthening the authority of the law¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿...59 4.1 Overview: aims and methods of legal authority 59 4.2 Understanding and memorising legal rules ¿................. ............60 4.3 Citizens¿ commitment to the law 62 4.3.1 Declarations of fundamental values 63 4.3.2 Textual style 65 4.3.3 Personal commitment by the citizen 66 4.4 Authority of the law and fear of sanctions 67 4.4.1 Peremptory character of the law 67 4.4.2 Sacred character of the law 68 4.4.3 Magical character of legal language 71 4.4.4 Requirement of humility before the court 74 4.4.5 The solemn forms of justice 74 4.5 Overcoming judicial uncertainty 77 5 Strengthening lawyers¿ team spirit¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿..78 5.1 Legal language and group cohesion 78 5.2 Latin as a cohesive factor in the legal profession......................... 78 5.3 Legal jargon: the lawyer(s secret language 80 6 Linguistic policy 80 6.1 Minority protection vs. language unification 80 6.2 An example: Finnish and Swedish in Finland 83 6.2.1 General 83 6.2.2 Evolution of the status of national languages 84 6.2.3 Current situation 86 6.2.4 Conclusion 87 7 The cultural task of legal language 88 7.1 Preserving the linguistic heritage 88 7.2 Developing the language 90 7.3 Tension between cultural heritage and democracy: legal Greek 91 7.3.1 Evolution of the Greek language 92 7.3.2 Transition to Demotic in practical lawyering 94 7.3.3 Conclusion 97 II CHARACTERISTICS OF LEGAL LANGUAGE 99 1 Precision 99 1.1 Importance of political factors and use of written form 99 1.2 Tautology 100 1.3 Definitions 101 1.3.1 Rationale, significance, use, classification 101 1.3.2 Legislation 103 1.3.3 Court decisions and private documents 105 1.3.4 Problems of legal definitions 107 1.4 Enumerations .............................................................................107 2 Information (over)load 108 3 Universality and aloofness.................................................................. 109 3.1 Abstraction and hypothetical character 109 3.2 Impersonality and objectivisation...............................................110 3.3 Neutrality 111 3.4 Metaphors 114 4 Systemic character¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿...116 4.1 Interrelationship of different elements of the law 116 4.2 Functions of referencing 118 4.3 Problems of referencing 119 4.4 Logical and consistent use of terms 120 5 Structure and formalism in legal texts 121 5.1 Logical disposition of legal texts 121 5.2 Structure of legislative texts 122 5.3 Model forms of judgments and private documents 123 5.3.1 Factors contributing to formalism in legal language 123 5.3.2 Functions of model forms in legal language 124 5.3.3 Domain of use of legal forms 126 5.3.4 Forms of judgment 127 5.3.5 Model forms in private documents 129 6 Frequency of initialisations and acronyms 133 6.1 Advantages and inconveniences of initialisations and acronyms¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿..133 7 Sentence complexity and diversity of language elements¿¿¿¿¿135 8 Archaism and solemnity¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿...138 8.1 Requirement of gravity 138 8.2 Causes and results of the phenomenon 139 8.3 Abandoning conservatism : revolutionary legal language in Soviet Russia 142 9 Proper use of legal language¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿.144 9.1 Historical survey 144 9.2 Factors contributing to obscurity of legal language 146 9.2.1 Force of tradition 146 9.2.2 Ensuring the authority of Justice 147 9.2.3 Requirement of legal protection 147 9.2.4 Complexity of society 148 9.3 The Utopia of easily understandable law 149 9.4 Improving the quality of legal language in our time 151 9.4.1 Establishing the need for improvement 151 9.4.2 Quality assurance of legal language in the European Union 154 III LEGAL TERMINOLOGY 155 1 Legal concepts 155 1.1 Distinguishing features of legal language 155 1.2 Legal families and conceptual kinship 156 1.2.1 Overview: avoiding conceptual misunderstandings 156 1.2.2 Common law and civil law 156 1.2.3 The legal system of the European Communities 158 2 Characteristics of legal terminology 160 2.1 Legal concepts and legal terms 160 2.2 Polysemy 162 2.2.1 Diachronic polysemy 162 2.2.2 Orderly and disorderly polysemy 163 2.2.3 Consequences of polysemy 165 2.3 Synonymy 165 3 Formation of legal terminology¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿..166 3.1 Birth and death of legal terms 166 3.1.1 Legal usage of words in everyday use 167 3.1.2 Neologisms of national origin 168 3.1.3 Loanwords 170 Technical and ideological aspects 170 Indonesian and loanwords .170 3.2 The European Union 173 3.2.1 Organisation of terminological work 173 3.2.2 Terms expressing new concepts 175 3.2.3 Formulating terminological equivalents 176 3.3 Other international organisations 179 C The major legal languages I THE HERITAGE OF LEGAL LATIN 185 1 The importance of Roman law 185 2 History of legal Latin. 187 2.1 Latin language in European culture 187 2.2 Latin as lingua franca of European lawyers 190 2.2.1 Historical overview 190 2.2.2 The periphery : legal Latin in the Nordic countries in the Middle Ages 194 2.3 The language of canon law 197 2.3.1. Characteristics and influences¿¿¿¿...¿¿¿¿¿...193 2.3.2 Canonical language today¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿199 3 Latin in modern legal languages¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿.. 201 3.1 Overview: ¿Latin is dead - long live Latin¿ 201 3.1.1 The situation at the international level 201 3.1.2 The Finnish example 205 3.2 Quotations 206 3.2.1 Rhetoric 207 3.2.2 The display function of Latin 209 3.2.3 Legal concepts and principles 211 3.3 Terms of Latin origin in modern legal languages 215 3.3.1 The common heritage of words 215 3.3.2 The danger of mistakes and misunderstandings 216 3.4 Calques and borrowed meanings 217 3.5 Stylistic reflections of legal Latin 218 3.5.1 The influence of legal Latin on modern legal languages 218 3.5.2 Characteristics of chancellery style ................................ 219 3.5.3 The abandonment of chancellery style 220 4 The communication value of legal Latin¿¿¿..¿¿¿¿¿¿¿...221 4.1 A caveat on variants of legal Latin 221 4.2 International coherence of legal Latin 224 4.2.1 Major legal families and legal Latin 224 4.2.2 Coherence of legal Latin in dictionaries of the same linguistic zones 227 4.2.3 Risk of mistakes and misunderstandings 228 4.2.4 External variation in expressions and maxims 229 4.3 Mitigating problems 231 5 Dictionaries of legal Latin¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿...231 English linguistic zone¿.............................................................231 French linguistic zone¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿.¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿.232 German linguistic zone................................................................232 Spanish and Portuguese linguistic zone¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿..232 Italy¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿.232 Russia¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿. 233 Greece¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿.233 II LEGAL GERMAN 235 1 History of legal German 235 1.1 The period of barbarian laws 235 1.2 Linguistic conditions in the Holy Roman Empire 236 1.2.1 Nature of the Empire 236 1.2.2 Status of Latin and German 236 1.3 The flowering of old legal German 237 1.4 Linguistic consequences of reception of Roman law .................238 1.4.1 Reasons for reception 238 1.4.2 Consequences of reception 240 1.4.3 Linguistic consequences of reception 241 1.5 Influence of legal French 243 1.6 The German enlightenment and legal language 244 1.6.1 The requirement for understandability of legal language 244 1.6.2 Germanisation of legal language 245 1.6.3 Linguistic importance of the major codifications 247 1.7 Legal language of a unified Germany¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿..249 1.7.1 Rejection of foreign language elements 249 1.7.2 The 19th century schools of law 251 1.7.3 The Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch 252 1.7.4 Efforts to spread legal German 255 1.8 The period following the Second World War ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿...255 2 Characteristics of legal German 256 2.1 Overview: lexical richness and conceptual distinctions 256 2.1.1 Wealth of terms 256 2.1.2 Pure German word-forms 257 2.1.3 Abstract character 258 2.2 International coherence 259 2.2.1 Geographical overview 259 2.2.2 Austrian Legal German 260 History..............................................................................261 Features............................................................................262 Influence of the European Union ................................... 263 3 International importance of legal German 264 3.1 General position of the German language 264 3.2 German as a legal lingua franca 266 3.2.1 International radiation of laws of German-speaking countries 266 3.2.2 International importance of legal German 269 3.2.3 An example : legal German in Finland 271 Medieval Low German 271 The 19th and 20th centuries 273 III LEGAL FRENCH 275 1 History of legal French 275 1.1 National supremacy of the French language 275 1.1.1 The struggle with Latin 275 Beginnings 275 Modern times 277 1.1.2 Discarding regional languages 278 1.1.3 Quality assurance of legal language 279 1.1.4 Style of judgments 280 1.2 Globalisation of legal French 281 1.2.1 Diplomacy 281 1.2.2 Colonisation 284 Canada 284 Africa 287 1.2.3 Radiation of French legal culture 287 1.3 An example: legal French in Finland 289 1.4 Defending the position of French 291 2 Characteristics of legal French 293 2.1 The link between related languages 293 2.1.1 The Romance languages 293 2.1.2 Legal English 295 2.2 International homogeneity of legal French 297 2.2.1 Belgium 297 2.2.2 Switzerland 297 2.2.3 Canada 300 2.2.4 Africa 302 2.3 Origin of vocabulary 302 2.4 Legal French style 304 2.4.1 Text construction 304 2.4.2 Textual level 305 2.5 Improving the quality of legal language 307 2.5.1 Measures of modernization 307 2.5.2 The struggle against anglicisms 309 3 International position today¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿...310 3.1 Continuing importance of legal French 310 3.2 Francophonia 310 3.2.1 Overview: defining ¿Francophonia¿ 310 3.2.2 North Africa 312 3.2.3 Tunisia under the microscope...........................................313 The legal order 313 Linguistic conditions 314 3.2.4 Sub-Saharan Africa 316 3.3 International organisations 317 3.3.1 Overview: extent of use and legislative harmonisation 317 3.3.2 The European Union 318 3.4 Legal science 321 IV LEGAL ENGLISH 323 1 The common law system 323 1.1 Development of the English legal system 324 1.1.1 Birth of common law 324 1.1.2 Birth of equity 326 1.1.3 Continuity of the English legal system 326 1.2 The English legal system today 327 2 Development of legal English 328 2.1 The Anglo-Saxon period 328 2.2 The Latin and French period 330 2.2.1 Dominance of law Latin 330 2.2.2 Rise of law French 331 2.2.3 Decline of law Latin and law French 332 2.2.4 Trilingualism of the legal profession 333 3 Characteristics of legal English¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿334 3.1 Multiplicity of linguistic components 335 3.1.1 Influence of other languages 335 3.1.2 Latin 335 3.1.3 Law French 338 3.2. Ritual and formalism of language 340 3.2.1 The tradition of verbal magic 340 3.2.2 Repetition 341 3.3 Wordiness of English legal language 343 3.3.1 Influence of the case-law system 343 3.3.2 Law of contract 345 3.4 Orthography and pronunciation 347 4 Legal English as a global language¿¿.¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿..349 4.1 Expansion of common law and international use of English 349 4.2 Legal English in the United States 350 4.2.1 American legal culture 350 American legal thinking 350 Basic structure of the Federal State 352 4.2.2 Characteristics of American legal English 353 An example : names of courts 354 Same concept ( different term 356 Ritualism and complexity of language ...............356 American legal English from the translator(s standpoint 357 4.3 Legal English in the Indian sub-continent 358 4.3.1 The Indian legal system 358 Anglo-Indian Law 358 4.3.2 Expansion and change of legal English in India 358 General position of English 358 English in Indian legal circles 360 Islamic law and common law language 361 4.4 Legal English in international trade 363 4.4.1 Risk of mistakes and misunderstandings 363 4.4.2 Contradictory interpretations 366 4.5 An example: legal English in Finland 367 D Conclusion 1 Changes in legal-linguistic dominance in the international arena 373 1.1 Rivalry of legal systems 373 1.2 Rivalry of legal languages 375 2 Terminological interaction between legal languages 377 2.1 Influence of Latin on modern languages 377 2.2 Borrowings between modern languages 378 3 Problems of lexical comprehension¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿.380 3.1 Danger of void literal translation 381 3.2 Danger of misleading literal translation 381 3.2.1 Manifestly misleading translations 382 3.2.2 Translations misleading due to polysemy 383 3.2.3 Misleading legal nuances 384 Curia and tribual 384 The term banca rotta 385 4 The need for jurilinguistic research on legal institutions and concepts 386 Foreign terms and other expressions 391 Index¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿..
Library of Congress Subject Headings for this publication:
Law -- Language.
Law -- Interpretation and construction.