International Legal English

A Practical Introduction for Students and Professionals

Rupert Haigh

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• eBook ISBN: 9781000299175
• Edition: 6
• Topic: Law
• Subtopic: Law Theory & Practice
• Index: Law

English is the dominant language of international business relations, and a good working knowledge of the language is essential for today's legal or business professional.

This book provides a highly practical approach to the use of English in commercial legal contexts, and covers crucial law terminology and legal concepts. Written with the needs of both students and practitioners in mind, this book is particularly suitable for readers whose first language is not English but need to use English on a regular basis in legal contexts.

The book covers both written and verbal legal communication in typical legal situations in a straightforward manner. In addition to chapters on the grammar and punctuation utilised in legal writing, the book features sections on contract-drafting and the language used in negotiations, meetings and telephone conversations. It features a companion website which contains exercises covering the majority of the topics covered in the book's chapters.

This edition thoroughly revises and expands the content of the companion website and contains updated examples, more detailed explanations of problematic areas and an expanded section on writing law essays.

Part 1

Written English

1 Introduction to legal English

2 Grammar for legal writing

3 Punctuation for legal writing

4 Sentence structure

5 Legal writing standards: Dates, numbers, citations and headings

6 Terminology and linguistic peculiarities

7 Elements of good style: Clarity, consistency, effectiveness

8 What to avoid

9 British and American English

10 Contracts: Structure and interpretation

11 Contract clauses: Types and specimen clauses

12 Drafting legal documents: Language and structure

13 Correspondence, memoranda and essays

14 Applying for a legal position

15 Self-study exercises

1 Introduction to legal English

1.1 The development of modern English

The English language contains elements from many different European languages and has also borrowed words from a wide variety of other languages. It is impossible to grasp how these influences affect the language without knowing a little about the history of the British Isles.

Prior to the Roman invasion of 55 bc, the inhabitants of Britain spoke a Celtic dialect. Latin made little impression until St Augustine arrived in ad 597 to spread Christianity. Latin words are now regularly used in English, particularly in professional language. In the legal profession, Latin phrases like inter alia (among others) and per se (in itself) remain in current use.

Subsequently, the Angles, Saxons and Jutes invaded the British Isles from mainland northern Europe. The language they brought with them forms the basis of what is known as Old English. This gives us the most commonly used words in the English language (words like god, man, land, bread, fish, beer). A simple comparison with their modern German equivalents (gott, mann, land, brot, fisch, bier) indicates their common origin.

The Vikings began to raid the north-east of England from Scandinavia from the 8th century onwards. At a later date, a significant number of Vikings settled in this area and made their own linguistic contribution (which can be seen, for example, in the numerous place names in the north-east of England [and Scotland] ending in -by, -thorpe, -wick, -ham and in words such as egg, husband, law, take, knife).

In 1066 the Normans invaded from northern France and conquered England. Words such as court, parliament, justice, sovereign and marriage come from this period.

Later, the English helped themselves to further words from French, such as chauffeur, bourgeois and elite. As the British Empire expanded, further opportunities to borrow words arose – words such as taboo and pukka came into the English language from that period.

The result of this multiplicity of linguistic influences is a rich and diverse language with a complex grammar and many synonyms. For example, a coming together of two or more people could be a meeting or gathering (Old English), assignation or encounter (Old French), a rendezvous, rally or reunion (French), a caucus (Algonquin), a pow-wow (Narragansett) or a tryst (Old French).

Matters are complicated further still by the fact that from the 17th century onwards, the process of colonisation began in earnest. Starting with Ireland and then moving outside the British Isles to North America, Australia, the West Indies, India and numerous other territories, colonial influence – and with it the English language – began to spread around the globe.

Colonial rule largely collapsed after World War II, but English in different forms and dialects persists as the national language or an important second or third language in many countries. The English spoken in one country may be quite different from that spoken in another. Because of this, it is perhaps possible to speak of ‘Englishes’ rather than ‘English’. Differences between the written English used in one country and another are less marked than those that exist between the types of spoken English used, but there are significant variations, in particula...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• PART 1 WRITTEN ENGLISH
• PART 2 SPOKEN ENGLISH
• Index