Legal English

Prefácio

Todo mundo já deve ter passado por uma situação em que foi mal entendido. Nessas horas, é comum nos lembrarmos de nossos pais, irmãos, amigos, enfim, de gente próxima que certamente nos entenderia. E essa lembrança é perfeitamente justificável. Deve-se ao poder comunicativo
que uma relação fraternal nos concede. Roland Barthes, em seus Fragmentos de um Discurso Amoroso, descreveu essa relação como portadora de uma linguagem semelhante a uma pele. Uma pessoa esfregaria sua pele na outra. Ela teria palavras no lugar dos dedos, ou dedos na ponta
das palavras.
Entretanto, a maioria das relações interpessoais não é regida pelo
espírito fraternal, no qual, além das palavras, todo o contexto é identificável por ser, em grande extensão, compartilhado e envolvido por uma mesma pele. Para sermos capazes de nos comunicar além das relações fraternais e de modo a assegurar as demais relações interpessoais criam-se convenções sociais que, uma vez eleitas, compõem um sistema legitimado – e compartilhado – por uma comunidade maior.
O sistema jurídico é reflexo dessa convencionalização, pois por
meio dele são organizadas e interpretadas determinadas convenções próprias com o intuito de garantir e atribuir, aos que estão inseridos em um certo grupo, direitos e deveres. Cria-se, dessa maneira, além das obrigações jurídicas, todo um subuniverso linguístico especializado, que existe paralelamente ao da comunidade. Um subuniverso com particularidades
próprias, cujo aspecto fraternal é mínimo e afasta – ou até mesmo repele – aqueles que não possuem o domínio de sua linguagem e convenções.
Ainda assim, em um mesmo universo linguístico (e.g. o qual adota o português do Brasil), ao menos todos que nele estão inseridos falam a mesma língua e entendem em maior ou menor grau a complexidade das relações sociais. Consequentemente, nesse contexto, os agentes do poder judiciário são capazes de articular sem grandes conflitos – porém não livre deles – a relação entre o leigo e a linguagem específica.
Agora, reflita sobre quando diferentes sistemas se cruzam ou se sobrepõem colocando os especialistas de ambos os lados em contato. Obviamente é necessária a adequada tradução de termos específicos que não encontram correspondentes diretos em cada um dos universos envolvidos.
Essa, por si só, já seria uma tarefa dotada de significativa complexidade, já
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que nela residem, não só as dificuldades de comunicação resultantes das particularidades dos sistemas jurídicos envolvidos, mas também a possibilidade de ruídos decorrentes das diferenças culturais entre os dois sistemas.
Nesse caso, além dos desafios linguísticos e das diferenças entre códigos éticos, é possível que as culturas se choquem, ou melhor, que se perceba a falta de compartilhamento de dois ou mais universos culturais.
No contexto jurídico bilíngue, um choque cultural acontece toda vez que
uma manifestação humana com intenção comunicativa de um sistema
de partida é tida como estrangeira ao sistema de chegada e nele se vê
emaranhada produzindo efeito outro que não o desejado pelo emitente
do sistema de origem. Fica então evidente, e se prova necessária, a atuação de um agente que domine tanto a linguagem dos sistemas em questão quanto os hábitos linguísticos das culturas estrangeiras que se encontram.
Um profissional capaz de fazer tanto a correspondência terminológica específica dos sistemas jurídicos entre os dois universos linguísticos como a orientação cultural dos interlocutores envolvidos.
Um exemplo de competência transcultural diretamente ligada à
terminologia e à tradução linguística seria o tradutor ou intérprete conhecer as nuanças de um termo, aparentemente simples, como law
no inglês e ter capacidade para decidir quais dos possíveis correspondentes em português empregar.
Outra situação permeada por transculturalidade ligada à pragmática seria aquela envolvendo um intérprete e um cliente estrangeiro, um
attorney por exemplo, na qual o primeiro informa ao segundo que tipo de
construção frasal funcionaria melhor para se obter uma resposta da maneira mais direta possível de uma testemunha brasileira, a qual o attorney em tela estaria inquirindo em um processo de arbitragem conduzido em inglês.
Imaginemos a cena: a testemunha brasileira é indagada por um juiz
norte-americano sobre sua a profissão. “Are you a journalist?”, pergunta
o juiz. “Você é jornalista?”, diz o intérprete. “Veja bem”, diz o brasileiro,
“ultimamente eu estava trabalhando de...”. “Lately, I have been working
as...”, continua o intérprete.
O juiz norte-americano assume um olhar intrigado com a resposta,
pois ele espera – e deseja – uma resposta objetiva. A testemunha brasileira acha importante explicar todos os detalhes de sua carreira profissional informando sobre o que ela própria acha mais relevante sobre o que significa ser ou não ser jornalista. 

Essa simples situação pode causar efeitos adversos ao processo judicial em questão. Explico: na cultura anglo-americana, existem as chamadas yes or no questions. De trato mais pragmático, os anglo-americanos ficam frustrados – e mesmo contrariados – quando a suas perguntas, quebrando  expectativas legítimas da cultura de chegada, não são dadas respostas objetivas, iniciadas por sim/não nesse caso. E você conhece algum brasileiro
acima de 2 anos de idade que empregue sim/não em suas respostas?
Americanos, principalmente, estão acostumados a uma resposta do
tipo ‘answer first’, ou seja, primeiro responda (“Sim, sou jornalista”. “Não,
não sou”.) e só depois explique – e somente se lhe for perguntado. Qualquer comportamento que se esquive dessa visão de normalidade poderia fazer brotar resistência por parte do destinatário e truncar a comunicação entre duas partes perfeitamente competentes dentro de sua própria cultura de origem. Isto é, cada uma delas é conhecedora exímia de seu próprio universo cultural, mas não de muitos aspectos do universo cultural de seu interlocutor.
Foi, portanto, com o espírito de trazer à superfície a importância
da competência terminológica jurídica bilíngue atrelada à conscientização da necessidade de uma competência transcultural, como pano de fundo e também como pano de boca, que este livro foi concebido, pois por meio
de ambas é possível recuperar um entendimento mais fino da pele habitada pelos indivíduos em seus respectivos universos culturais jurídicos de modo a dotar a comunicação de fluidez e segurança, bem como reduzir o tempo e os recursos despendidos.

Luciana Carvalho Fonseca

ISBN 978-85-67695-00-6

In the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (BASCA) and others v Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills case, the High Court of Justice in matter of private copy exception provides the twofold prime opportunity to shed light on the state of the art of copyright in the UK and to flesh out the idea of 'legal hysteresis’. I support the reintroduction of the private copy exception, possibly in a less narrow fashion, and I explain the reasons why I am confident that my expectations will be fulfilled.

Memrise to edukacyjna aplikacja działająca na stronie internetowej oraz w wersji mobilnej wykorzystująca fiszki w połączeniu z mnemotechnikami do nauki języków obcych oraz do zapamiętywania informacji z innych dziedzin, np. geografii, prawa czy matematyki. Kursy na stronie memrise mogą być tworzone przez samych użytkowników (tzw. crowdsourcing), a zatem mogą być dostosowane do indywidulanych potrzeb użytkowników i mogą służyć do nauki i utrwalania treści prezentowanych na zajęciach językowych.
Rozdział prezentuje możliwości wykorzystania memrise do nauki słownictwa branżowego z zakresu angielskiego języka prawniczego jako narzędzia pomocniczego na lektoracie języka angielskiego na wyższej uczelni, który przygotowuje studentów do przystąpienia do międzynarodowego egzaminu certyfikatowego TOLES (Test of Legal English Skills). Rozdział przedstawia przykłady ćwiczeń, które ułatwiają zapamiętywanie słownictwa, naukę kolokacji, fraz przyimkowych, rozwijają umiejętności parafrazowania i definiowania terminów prawniczych oraz ich pisowni. Wykorzystanie metody crowdsourcingu stwarza możliwości włączenia studentów w proces tworzenia treści kursów zamieszczanych na stronie memrise i jest dla nich dodatkowych motywem do kontaktu z językiem branżowym.
Druga część rozdziału jest opracowaniem wyników badania, którego celem było poznanie opinii studentów na temat memrise jako narzędzia do samodzielnej nauki specjalistycznego języka angielskiego oraz ocena wpływu pracy z memrise na wyniki osiągane przez studentów w trakcie lektoratu. Analiza porównawcza wyników osiąganych na testach została przeprowadzona wśród studentów korzystających z aplikacji oraz tych, którzy wybierali tradycyjne (niemobilne) metody nauki. Badanie będzie również próbą odpowiedzi na pytanie czy studenci współtworzący treści kursów na memrise (ang. contributors) osiągają lepsze wyniki od tych, którzy są tylko ich użytkownikami.

This article highlights the question of gender neutrality in prescriptive legal texts and shows how the rise of feminism has led to the stigmatization of ‘sexist’ language by criticizing the use of the ‘masculine rule’ in legal texts. After a brief historical survey as to how and why the masculine rule was introduced in the early 19th century, the author explores the situation of gender-neutral drafting in a variety of English-speaking countries as well as in international organizations. This is followed by a detailed analysis of gender-neutral drafting in the United Kingdom and Ireland, with specific reference to the situation in Westminster, the Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly of Wales, the Northern Ireland Assembly, and the Oireachtas in Dublin. It is noted that some of these legislative bodies have been quicker than others in introducing gender-neutral drafting.

Arbitration has been a means of resolving disputes since the beginning of time, changing as the world changed and surviving unscathed the collapse of civilizations and empires, deep transformations in social systems, different ways of seeing the world around us. Far from declining, it seems today to be more alive than ever, globalization having given it even stronger impetus. The complexity of business transactions, transcultural issues, the birth of trade organizations, gathering countries and legal systems that might seem incompatible, have not discouraged recourse to arbitration, quite the opposite. It has proved a flexible, effective and reliable resource. Of course, not all problems are over. One of the most fascinating issues in my eyes concerns language. It could not be otherwise, when the parties increasingly often come from different Countries: they may choose to negotiate in either of their languages, in both, or in neither, selecting a third language – usually English – that is not the mother tongue of either of them, and yet will become the language in which they conduct business, deal with vital questions, raise their claims, and try to avoid litigation. And the technical terminology of arbitration itself is full of interesting discoveries. This paper intends to explore the history, development and problems of language in this specific field. Definitions and Historical overview When the parties come from different Countries, bridging language differences is a prerequisite for the success of arbitration: failing to do so can bring about unforeseen and costly consequences. As we will see, history has played a primary role in introducing words and expressions that have become peculiar to this process.

THE TRIAL COURT,  JUDGE LON E. FARRIS  FROM THE 31ST VIRGINIA JUDICIAL CIRCUIT (JUDGE FARRIS OR TRIAL COURT), ERRED WHEN JUDGE FARRIS APPEARED WITHOUT AUTHORITY ON MARCH 8, 2022, PRESIDED OVER PRETRIAL MATTERS, AND ENTERED AN ORDER TO DISMISS DANIEL'S COMPLAINT WITH PREJUDICE.

IV. THE TRIAL COURT, JUDGE LON E. FARRIS, ERRED IN RULING THAT THE CIRCUIT COURT LACKED SUBJECT MATTER JURISDICTION TO HOLD A JURY TRIAL TO DETERMINE WHETHER THE DEFENDANTS HAD ENGAGED IN MISCONDUCT UNDER THE VIRGINIA SUPREME COURT RULES OF PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT CITED IN THE UNDERLYING CASE ON APPEAL.

One of the most essential skills for law students to be successful in their discipline is the ability to read legal cases. Christensen (2006) in her research entitled "Legal Reading and Success in Law School: An Empirical Study" shows that students who are able to read judicial opinions effectively and efficiently are more successful in their studies. However, the most common assumption is that students would have possessed this skill when they enroll in a law school. This attitudinal fallacy is referred to as “skills deployment assumption” (Stratman,1990). Thus, this paper describes a research which attempted to explore the common practices in the reading of legal cases among law students in a Malaysian public university. It emphasizes on the problems faced and the strategies employed by law students in carrying out the task. This study which adopted a case study design obtained the data through interview sessions with a few law students and lecturers. The results showed that more effective pedagogical approaches could be devised to assist students to overcome their problems in reading legal cases. Students were also found to have developed their own techniques in overcoming the difficulties in reading legal cases

As is well known, the Plain language movement has been influential in a number of areas of public life over the last few decades. Within the legal sphere it has raised general awareness concerning the need to make legal matters and legal documents more comprehensible and accessible to non-experts, particularly in today's digitalized world where information is freely available to the general public. In this paper my aim is to provide an overview of the way the Plain language movement has evolved in the legal sphere since the 1970s. In particular, I will highlight the following points: (1) the reasons why the Plain language movement came into being; (2) the major successes of plain language in the legal sphere over the last 40 years; (3) the areas where legalese still predominates, and the reasons for the resistance to change; and (4) the way the Plain language movement has adapted to the digitalized world and the implications for future development. My observations will be mainly restricted to the English-speaking world, including international organizations where English is one of the official languages, but I will occasionally make reference to other plain language organizations outside the English-speaking world where this seems relevant. I also provide a list of the major organizations involved in promoting plain language in English in the legal sphere today as a reference guide.

This book presents a series of texts and exercises on legal matters which will prepare the student gradually to reach, respectively, the A2, B1 or B2 level of English, according to the European Common Framework of Reference for Languages.
The book is written in English and is divided into three parts.
The first part focuses on topics dealing with English as a lingua franca and/or Legal English of the EU Institutions. There are texts on legal systems, judicial systems and EU documents and bodies. The texts and exercises are designed for pre-intermediate students.
The second part contains texts and exercises which prepare students to reach an intermediate level of English in the legal field. The texts focus on the civil lawsuit, contract law, and human rights.
The third part contains texts and exercises for upper-intermediate students, dealing with foundations of company law, civil law and human rights. All exercises come with keys.
The second part can complement the preparation of the TOLES (Test of Legal English Skills) (Foundation level). The third part can complement the preparation of the Foundation and Higher levels of the TOLES.

Notice and Complaint filed on 5/11/22 versus US 4th Circuit Court of Appeals Judges sitting in Richmond, Virginia.

The US 4th Circuit Court of Appeals does not have "subject matter jurisdiction" to process a Reciprocal Disciplinary case when the original Virginia State Bar Disciplinary Board Order was void ab initio when entered by the VSB DB based on only Virginia courts having "subject matter jurisdiction" to impose discipline on any attorney practicing law in Virginia.

See VA Code § 54.1-3915. Restrictions as to rules and regulations. https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title54.1/chapter39/section54.1-3915/

Supreme Court of Virginia v. Consumers Union, 446 U.S. 719 (1980) https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/446/719/

Освещается актуальное направление прикладных лингводидактических исследований по разработке и применению интерактивных электронных учебных пособий, адресованных
студентам высшей школы. Рассматриваются технология и методы работы с интерактивным электронным учебником English for Law Students. Описываются структура и содержание учебника, основные этапы работы, даются методические рекомендации.

International certificate exams are regarded as an objective, reliable and equal way of assessing the students' knowledge of foreign languages at the end of their university language course. All stakeholders seem to be satisfied with this kind of assessment, i.e. students, school authorities as well as teachers. Certificate exams courses are quite easy to structure for teachers, students leave universities with internationally recognised diplomas-proofs of their language competence which also win renown for universities. If we, however, think about the students' target needs, we may observe a divergence and may need to make difficult choices. The first and most striking variance concerns the content to teach. Legal English courses leading towards Legal English exams will develop vocabulary, reading skill, and to limited extent – writing. They prepare students for a British exam, so they acquaint them with common law concepts and procedures. However, Polish students come from a civil law tradition country and in the future they will most probably work in law office environment where they will have to explain the concepts of Polish or EU legal system in English or draft on these concepts in English. Unfortunately, no objective measures, apart from these set by the teachers themselves, for assessing the learning outcomes of that part of Legal English courses exist. Perhaps, they will be verified in the long-run by the students themselves after they embark on their lawyer's careers. Today, however, we may only wonder, whether we teach them the right skills, how an effective Legal English course for law students should be structured, what outcome is more valuable – a lawyer with an English language certificate or a lawyer-an effective communicator.

"Seven years have passed since ‘Legal English and Plain Language: an introduction’ (Williams 2004) was published. Since then several changes have occurred in the field of legal drafting in English-speaking countries and institutions which move in the direction of the proposals endorsed by the Plain language movement. In this paper I attempt to outline and contextualize some of the major changes that have taken place since 2004.
Probably the most striking transformation over the last few years in the English-speaking world has come about in the United Kingdom, particularly in Edinburgh and Westminster. In 2004 the newly-established Scottish Parliament had not yet broached the question of modernizing the drafting style of its laws. But that was shortly to come. Likewise in Westminster in 2004, with the exception of the Tax Law Rewrite Project (Williams 2007), there was little to indicate that the drafting of legislation was to undergo the major changes that have taken place recently. A number of areas of legal language have also been modernized in the United States in the past few years, though the impact of Plain language on legislative drafting has been less incisive when compared to the UK.
My main conclusion is that, if we observe the question of legal drafting and Plain language in the English-speaking world as a whole, there has been a shift of focus since 2004. Not long ago I spoke of a “North-South divide” (Williams 2006: 239), with innovation coming largely from the southern hemisphere (especially Australia and New Zealand) whilst the northern hemisphere – particularly the US and the UK – appeared to be more resistant to change. Today my perception is rather different: I would be more inclined to distinguish between national drafting bodies as ‘innovators’ and international drafting bodies as ‘conservatives’. The changes in drafting style that have occurred recently in the UK and, to some extent, in the US would not appear to have been matched in those international bodies where English is one of the official languages, notably the United Nations and the European Union. I briefly analyse why international bodies may be less inclined than national bodies to change their drafting styles."

The purpose of this paper is to investigate, from a socio-semiotic
perspective, the manner in which the political regimes installed after the forced abdication of King Mihai I (on 30 December 1947) used the Throne Hall in the former royal palace in Bucharest to meet their own needs. In December 1947, Romania was illegally turned from a constitutional monarchy into a popular republic, with the help of
the Red Army. Then, the popular republic was transformed into a socialist republic, in fact, a communist dictatorship. In December 1989, the communist regime collapsed and was replaced by a post-communist one, a regime which did not seem willing to leave behind the communist ideological legacy, manifest, in the 1990s, in the brutal repression of anti-government protesters in University Square in Bucharest, or in the Romanian Mineriads of 1990 and 1991. The political regimes that succeeded to power after 1947 deprived the Throne Hall of its monarchic symbolism and used it in ways incongruent with its inherent function, albeit for official purposes. The manner in which the
communist regime made use of this particular place is indicative of its intent and success in reinventing traditions or adapting older traditions to its ideological goals, in order to alienate Romanians from their recent past, in disrespect for the nation’s heritage. Although the former royal palace was completely transformed into a national museum of art after 1990, a cultural institution meant, by its very purpose, to save at least part of the nation’s memory, political decision makers ignored the symbolism of a national museum such as the National Museum of Art of Romania, known to many Romanians as the former royal palace. In bewildering, yet not unprecedented fashion, the Throne Hall has been recently used, by the Romanian government, as a dining hall in a series of events that preceded the takeover of the presidency of the EU
Council by Romania in January 2019. We claim that the government’s decision can be circumscribed to Jean Baudrillard’s concept of consumerism, characterized by the rule of sign value as a status symbol. In addition, Jan Blommaert’s and Barbara Johnstone’s taxonomies further the argument that the Throne Hall is not a mere space, but a place, its function having been perverted by both ideological
manipulation and aggressive consumerism.

In 2006 the Faculty of Law of the University of Parma (Italy) launched a postgraduate training project called EFLIT (English for Law and International Transactions) with the aim of offering professionals and graduates in the fields of Law and Economics a course combining a linguistic focus (i.e. English for Law, at B2 level of the Common European Framework of Reference) and a content focus (i.e. Law in English) in order to improve both their language and legal skills. Since then EFLIT has developed into a national project and has obtained recognition by professional associations for accreditation purposes in continuous education. This has called for a valid, reliable, standardised end-of-course test which assesses the level reached by participants and is ‘authentic’, i.e. reflects their real needs for English and translates their competence into actual performance. Participants are encouraged to aim for internationally recognised certificates designed by accredited testers, but are too often intimidated by the level required, the format of the exam, and the perception that it does not really meet their needs. EFLIT teaching staff carried out an online survey in order to identify their specific requirements and expectations by creating an EFLIT participant profile, with the final objective of designing an exam suitable for both lawyers and accountants, and tailored to the needs of professionals working in Italy. The present study outlines a new format of the final exam based on the results of the survey, in an attempt to bring together language assessment principles and the professional needs of participants, and compares it to the university’s internal test to verify to what extent the latter matches the requirements of the students’ future profession.

In this paper I begin by briefly describing some of the main characteristics of written legal English which differentiate it from other genres, such as sentence length and the complexity of its sentence structures, repetitiveness, the high concentration of Latinisms and archaic or rarely used lexical items etc. (Bhatia 1993; Tiersma 1999). Such features have been widely held for centuries as having an exclusionary function, entrenching the privileges of the legal profession. With the growth of the Plain Language movement over the last few decades in all the major English-speaking countries, however, calls for radical changes in legal English have become increasingly widespread (Asprey 1991), and cases of enacted legislative texts following the principles of Plain Language can already be found in several countries, e.g. South Africa, Australia and Canada. I analyse the proposals of the Plain Language movement and the feasibility of making legal texts more comprehensible to the layperson without running the risk of ‘dumbing down' such texts and creating new problems of ambiguity in interpretation that could end up by being detrimental to the public at large.

After an encouraging start, the state-sponsored plain
language initiative ‘Progetto Chiaro!’ fizzled out several years ago.
So Italians are once again left to grapple with the
complexities of bureaucratese, an area still in need of
drastic reform.

every profession has a specialized jargon associated to it, similar is the legal profession and the jargon used is called Legalese, but when the technical terms in such a communication gain a prevalence then the communication of the same gets hindered.

What makes legalese difficult is the fact that the legal authors tend to forget the fact that their readers might be laypeople who are not very well or in certain cases not at all acquainted with these terms.

Plain Language provides an alternative method to convey the same message in a simpler and easier language.

This paper investigates how English for Academic Legal Purposes-type (EALP) textbooks, published over the past three decades, have evolved and responded to the challenges of law school education. The purpose of such investigation is three-fold: (1) to determine the nature of the typology that configures the composition of contemporary EALP-type textbooks; (2) to (re)define EALP in light of the new typology; and (3) to determine the possible implications of such typology for legal English pedagogy. The literature review revealed that between 1980 thought 2002, legal English textbooks focused primarily on writing instruction with disproportionate emphasis on grammar, legal content, and general writing skills. A qualitative content analysis of a sample of 44 EALP-type textbooks, published between 2002 through 2013, revealed a shift toward multi-skills instruction that is pragmatically scaffolded across the duration of law school. Increasingly, contemporary textbooks attempt to inculcate a comprehensive set of skills that satisfies the needs of academia and legal practice. In pedagogic scholarship these sets of skills are referred to as literacies. Accordingly, EALP is redefined and the features of contemporary EALP-type textbooks are revealed through the new typology. Across the circles of world English, the legal discourse community could utilize these findings as follows: to reevaluate the scaffolding of legal English instruction in terms of law school curriculum design, to determine the features of jurisdiction-specific and universally applicable EALP-type textbook content, and to assist teachers and learners in their decision-making process when selecting course materials.

The main purpose of this thesis is to investigate on the translation strategies’ occurrence in legal drama and the way these strategies are applied to translate legal language.
The corpus consists of the first five episodes of fifteenth season of Law &Order SVU, which is a very valid example of legal drama. Legal drama is characterized by the legal context, in which the main part of the single episode takes place, and the fictional aspect, which leads us to the idea that the linguistic variety of legal English used in Courtroom Drama is not the prototypical variety.
Our main interest is to research on audiovisual products like legal drama to find out how the rules of Audiovisual Translation can change the way legal expressions are translated. In fact, we noticed that the medium of communication, which is television in this case, can alter the translation, because legal drama is not a product designed for an expert speakers’ audience. It came out that it is necessary to popularize, somehow, legal English.
In fact, Legal English has some features like, technical terms and archaic forms, that make difficult for those who do not belong to the professional community to understand specialized discourse. For this reason, legal language has to be popularized using strategies which purpose is to fill the gap between specialized discourse and the audience, as we can see in the corpus considered.

After centuries of following hidebound tradition and of using antiquated legalese, things finally seem to be moving, albeit slowly, towards a more modern drafting style.
In this article I focus on three areas where changes are already visible:
• the UK Tax Law Rewrite Project
• the Acts of the Scottish Parliament
• gender-neutral drafting in the UK.

The present study outlines how social media can be used as a learning tool within a training programme for the continuing education of legal professionals, and how this translates into developing valuable professional skills. In particular, it focuses on how the postgraduate programme EFLIT (English for Law and International Transactions), developed by Parma University (Italy) for professionals in the fields of Law and Economics, has adopted the EU recommendations on key competences for lifelong learning as a guiding principle, with digital literacy now one of the additional competences included in its scope. EFLIT itself manages its own webpage, mailing lists, Facebook page, and, lastly, LinkedIn®, seen as both a marketing tool for the project and an educational tool to be used by the trainers in supporting participants in the management of their professional identity, and their digital reputation and network. Thanks to the ‘task-based learning’ approach of its multidisciplinary teaching staff and the analysis of the participants’ needs, EFLIT promotes the development of their language and legal skills in English while monitoring the evolution of their professional world. This ‘hands-on’ format, where learners are actively involved in ‘doing’ (e. g. drafting a contract, negotiating, explaining provisions, etc.) has allowed EFLIT to become the largest provider of ‘legal English skills’ instruction in Italy and be recognised by professional associations for accreditation purposes in legal continuous education.

Keywords: Legal English, needs analysis, digital competence, social media, online reputation

This article discusses one of the less mainstream areas of ESP teaching, that of legal English for students of company law. The author begins by analysing the approach used by subject-domain specialists themselves and the current criticism regarding the conservative textbook approach which continues to dominate teaching theory in this area. To this effect, she presents the results of a study carried out from October 2014 to March 2015 regarding subject-domain textbooks most used in Law Schools in Australia, Britain, Canada and the USA. The paper then addresses the question of teaching legal English to students of company law. After a brief outline of the three main theories underlying language teaching –behaviourist, cognitive and communicative– the author provides a critical guide to the main course books available to teachers in this rarefied area of specialised language learning, listing the types of exercises proposed, and evoking their overall strengths and weaknesses. To conclude, she suggests means of supplementing course book material.

This article examines a number of effects, on legal translation, caused by the globalization of law: legal hybridity of source texts, system-neutrality of world commercial English, "fit for purpose" and "acceptance of sufficient quality" of legal translation, validity of legal translation by excerpts or summary, development of professions offering "Multilingual legal alert" etc. In a world characterized by a crisis of national Parliamentary legislation, traditional legal translation is being replaced by a proliferation of legal translation modes.

This presentation reports a study examining the perceptions, attitudes and experiences of three teachers of English for Academic Legal Purposes (EALP) in the UK and two in Greece. Data was gathered using semi-structured interviews. Participants’ views on the materials used and on forms of co-operation between English teachers and subject specialists will be considered. Although collaboration led to the design of in-house materials in the case of the EALP instructors teaching in the UK, the lack of specialist help meant the Greek EALP teachers took a more conservative approach regarding materials design. To be more specific, in the first instance, the ESP teachers attended law lectures and then designed their own materials which they then evaluated and discussed with the law lecturers. In the case of Greek EALP courses though, the lack of collaboration between English teachers and Law lecturers led the English teachers to focus on published materials and more specifically on reading and comprehension of simplified legal texts.

The impact of mass media on individuals and society is to a great extent based on emotions. We concentrate on fear as it is one of the basic emotions triggered by risk and threat, which is claimed to play a key role in the twenty-first century consciousness (Furedi 20018). The study focuses on the emotionalisation of fear in contemporary media discourse about Russia, more specifically, on constructions of 'Russian threat' and 'fear of Russia' in Anglo-American media texts to highlight pragmatic effects and to speculate on possible purposes of such discourses. The study aims to explore the functioning of the lexemes threat and fear, in textual contexts with the focus on their pragma-discursive characteristics. It identifies the mechanisms as well as linguistic tools involved in media strategies of scare-mongering. The dataset was derived from quality British and American newspapers in the period 2018-2020, and was analysed drawing on an interdisciplinary approach combining critical discourse analysis, pragmatics, medialinguistics, psycholinguistics and the theory of proximisation. The paper argues that appealing to emotions as well as constructing emotions is aimed at enhancing the persuasive function of media and fulfilling their own agenda. The persistent use of the words 'threat' and 'fear' in relation to Russia as well as the obsessive discussion of this topic in media aim to shape a certain negative public opinion of Russia among readerships. The findings show that to achieve this goal different strategies and linguistic tools are used including: exaggeration, repetition, proximisation, interrogative headlines, presupposition, among others. The results go beyond linguistics, and may find implementation in political studies, since they provide researchers with tools for understanding contemporary social and political processes.

Translation in CLIL? It may seem a contradiction in terms. CLIL means Content and Language Integrated Learning, and is based on the assumption that content is taught through the second/foreign language (or an additional language). Little or no room is left to the learners’ mother tongue, which is either declared off limits or used in very limited cases. So, what’s the role of translation in CLIL? Is there any place for it at all?
Drawing on current research on CLIL (Aiello, Di Martino & Di Sabato, 2017; Baker, 2014; Coyle, Hood & Marsh, 2010; Dalton-Puffer, Nikula & Smit, 2010) and on the pedagogical uses of “the 5th skill” (Cook, 2012; Gaballo, 2009c), this study sets out to investigate how translation can be integrated into language and content learning.
The methodological approach that underlies this analysis essentially combines several models which contribute to explaining the complex nature of the problem at issue (i.e. using translation to teach both language and content in the CLIL class), with its multiple variables to be taken into account. The pedagogical framework describes the implementation of the ensuing model’s design within CLIL contexts: examples are drawn from courses taught since 2005, inspired by social constructivist pedagogy (Vygotsky, 1978; Kiraly, 2000; Gaballo, 2009b) in a networked learning environment (Dirckinck-Holmfeld, Hodgson & McConnell, 2012; Gaballo, 2014), and a collaborative translation approach (Gaballo, 2009a).

The present paper will try to analyze some crucial features that can highlight the differences between English for legal purposes (ELP) and General English (GE). It focuses on use of (ELP) as a medium of instruction within practical field of Law. The study will deal with a fact that lawyers are the most eloquent users of English language. Where, on the other hand, they are its notorious abusers. It is because they employ arcane vocabulary within their discourses. The most controversial features that underlie within this field were to be analyzed from different perspectives: (1) its practicability to legal language's nature (2) semantic interpretations of legal interpretations and (3) perceptual differences over statues of applied and real cases. A language policy program was conducted for this purpose in SM (Sind Muslim) Law College, (Hyderabad) Sind, Pakistan. Its goal was to analyze the particular needs of the legal learners towards their use of English language. After having the discussions with stakeholders, learners, experienced interlocutors and advocates themselves, the researcher, then analyzed some of the case methods (legal books). It was considered a necessary concern to have particular model that should design a conclusive course of integrating the language learning with legal content. This study falls with three major categories in the end for future scholars. (1) Study of Specific English language within legal field. (2) Study of spoken English language within legal settings and (3) Study of written English language of law. However, the main attempt is to explore the third category, focusing on controversial features within written form of legal English language. This study will also help future ESP course designers to visualize the underlying facts that are important in present era. It will not only improve the learning purposes but to strategies for teaching methods. Therefore, it is important to analyze the controversial facts of ELP course.

In 2006 Parma University’s Faculty of Law, in cooperation with the Language Centre, launched EFLIT (English for Law and International Transactions), a postgraduate training project aimed at offering professionals and graduates in the fields of Law and Economics a course combining a linguistic focus (i.e. English for Law, at B2 level of the Common European Framework of Reference) and a content focus (i.e. Law in English) in order to improve both their language and legal skills. Thanks to its unique format, EFLIT has since then developed from a local project to a national project, it has obtained the official recognition of professional associations of both lawyers and chartered accountants for accreditation purposes in continuous education, and is now the largest provider of skills-based training in Legal English in Italy, with a community of participants and alumni which includes over 2,000 individuals. This greater scope has called for the establishment of several course formats (Premium, Classic, Advanced), which are intended to facilitate professional communication with foreign colleagues and clients by focalising on the actual needs for English of professionals working in Italy, whilst maintaining an international outlook. In order to design courses tailored to their real requirements and expectations, an online survey was specifically devised for EFLIT participants and alumni and posted on the website of the Language Centre. The feedback provided led to the creation of an “EFLIT participant profile” to be used as reference when planning the course, i.e. the actual needs and interests of participants are to be the guiding parameters in devising the syllabus, and ultimately in the choice and weighting of the class activities with the dual aim of meeting expectations and developing the specific skills and competencies required by their profession. This study reveals the results of the survey and the criteria to be taken into consideration when designing courses for these professionals.

The article investigates the link between lexical and meaning patterns in the specialized discourse of judicial opinions. It presents an analysis of the N that pattern in a corpus of US Supreme Court opinions. The analysis looks at the distribution of a selection of nouns found in the pattern across different discourse functions. It is shown that judicial opinions use a range of status-indicating nouns in the N that pattern to perform five main functions: evaluation, cause, result, confirmation and existence. Yet, evaluation plays a central role in judicial writing and most status-indicating nouns are used to signal sites of contentions, i.e. challenged propositions are likely to be labelled as arguments, assumptions, notions or suggestions. By drawing on the concept of semantic sequence (Hunston 2008), the analysis illustrates how corpus-based and corpus-driven approaches can complement one another to build a picture of common epistemological practices in the corpus of legal texts.

In 2006 the Faculty of Law of the University of Parma (Italy) launched a postgraduate training project called EFLIT (English for Law and International Transactions) with the aim of offering professionals and graduates in the fields of Law and Economics a course combining a linguistic focus (i.e. English for Law, at B2 level of the Common European Framework of Reference) and a content focus (i.e. Law in English) in order to improve both their language and legal skills. Since then EFLIT has developed into a national project and has obtained recognition by professional associations for accreditation purposes in continuous education. This has called for a valid, reliable, standardised end-of-course test which assesses the level reached by participants and is ‘authentic’, i.e. reflects their real needs for English and translates their competence into actual performance. From the start participants have been encouraged to aim for Cambridge ESOL International Legal English Certificate (ILEC) and International Certificate of Financial English (ICFE). However, the level required by these exams (i.e. B2/C1) is generally too high for the people on the EFLIT courses and this results in candidates’ frustration and discouragement. For this reason, EFLIT teaching staff is currently designing a test which is a ‘stepping stone’ towards ILEC, i.e. an exam which is at a slightly lower level, suitable for both lawyers and accountants, and tailored to the needs of professionals working in Italy, with the objective of obtaining national recognition by professional associations. The test is to be based on course content but also on the answers provided by participants in an online survey specifically devised to create an “EFLIT participant profile” and identify their real requirements and expectations.