Description: This book explores the ways language is used by the professional legal community for the communication of its main business - the negotiation of justice - in today's globalized world. The three main aspects of language use are explored: in the legal contexts of litigation, arbitration and mediation; in the main issues identified in those contexts and finally in the applications of legal linguistics. Themes such as issues of power and ideology in the use of legal language and cross-cultural legal communication are also considered.
Review Quotes: 'The detailed chapters of this book constitute spectra from several angles, including the Western world and China. Furthermore, the book studies legal discourse in a variety of contexts as well as examining important didactic and research issues, making it highly recommendable to a wide readership.' Heikki E.S. Mattila, University of Lapland, Finland 'Applying the expertise and tools of corpus linguistics, discourse analysis, and sociolinguistics, the authors of this interesting melange of essays analyse and discuss a number of legal spheres in a wide variety of countries, including both civil and common law jurisdictions. The volume is a useful and often engaging addition to the growing literature on the intersection between language and the law.' Peter Tiersma, Loyola Law School, USA 'Looking at law through the lens of language shows that all legal action has an aspect of argumentation and negotiation of meaning. This volume gives a broad overview of relevant contexts and approaches and is a valuable consolidation of these issues in legal linguistics.' Jan Engberg, Aarhus University, Denmark