Article contents
Language in the Legal Process
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 July 2024
Abstract
This review essay analyzes the relation between language and the two basic functions of law, the ordering of social relations and the restoration of social order when it breaks down. One main theme is the linguistic description of legal language and the sociolinguistic and sociolegal limitations on its reform. Drawing on a basic distinction between the nature of discourse in play, ritual, and the “serious” mode of everyday life, the essay goes on to contrast “play” genres of disputing with “fact”-oriented genres. An overview of the forms and functions of play genres of disputing is followed by a discussion of the management of three main aspects of “facf'-oriented disputes: the substance of arguments, linguistic form, and language and silence. Narrative and questioning modes of claim construction are contrasted. The notion of “thickening” in legal language is presented, and five possible explanations for this phenomenon are explored. The essay concludes with a discussion of topics for future debate and research.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Law & Society Review , Volume 14 , Issue 3: Contemporary Issues in Law and Social Science , Spring 1980 , pp. 445 - 564
- Copyright
- Copyright © 1980 Law and Society Association.
Footnotes
I wish to thank colleagues and friends at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem for their suggestions, comments, and encouragement: Bryna Bogoch, Daniel Dayan, Don Handelman, Uriel Procaccia, Yizhak Roeh, Lea Shamgar-Handelman, and Benny Shanon. Over the last five years I have had stimulating conversations about language and law with the following, among others: Max Atkinson, Veda and Bob Charrow, Bruce Fraser, Michael Hancher, Ken Hoffman, Beth Loftus, Paz Buenaventura Naylor, Mack O'Barr, Mike Parkinson, and Susan Philips. I thank them, as well as all the others, too numerous to mention, who sent me materials on language and law, sometimes unsolicited. My work in this area has been supported by the Law and Social Science Program of the National Science Foundation (Grant No. SOC-74-23503), the Israel Ford Foundation, and The Hebrew University Social Science Faculty. Special thanks to Rick Abel for his advice, encouragement, excellent leads, and, most of all, patience, during the preparation of this essay.
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