Comparative Legal Linguistics - Hardcover

Mattila, Heikki E.S.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0754648745 ISBN 13: 9780754648741

Publisher: Routledge, 2006

Synopsis

The language of law reflects the overlapping, competing and co-existing nature of legal discourse: its form both the product of its linguistic history and a response to the fluidity of legal culture. This book examines legal language as a language for special purposes, evaluating the functions and characteristics of legal language and the terminology of law. Using examples drawn from major and lesser legal languages, it examines the major legal languages themselves, beginning with Latin through German, French and English. Each chapter includes a historical overview of the growth of the language, its international use, its coherence in the various countries using it and its relationship to cognate legal languages. Where relevant, the characteristics of legal cultures are described to explain the features of the legal language. The work will be a valuable resource for students, researchers and practitioners in the areas of comparative law, legal theory, semiotics, and linguistics.

About this title

About the Author:

Professor Heikki E.S. Mattila is Professor of Legal Linguistics at the University of Lapland, Finland. His current research interests focus on comparative law and comparative legal linguistics. He has published several studies on legal languages, especially on legal Latin, as well as on family law, law of inheritance and international private law. Professor Mattila is also Docent of Comparative Law at the University of Helsinki in Finland.

Review:

Reviews for the 1st edition:Mattila's fascination with the law is well conveyed through clear articulation of the structures and processes underpinning various legal systems...this is an excellent book for advanced undergraduates and postgraduates working in any field related to language and the law.Annabelle Mooney, International Journal for the Semiotics of LawThis exceptional book constitutes a fine source of learning for comparative lawyers, lawmakers (especially European lawmakers), linguists and historians but also a great inspiration for legal practitioners and legal translators and interpreters who are willing to look beyond the confines of their own legal system.Franz J. Heidinger, Translatio (FIT)Mattila proves in his work that comparative legal studies can be fruitfully approached from the linguistic point of view...The emerging global law will need a new language and works like Mattila's are fundamental to its development.Marcus Galdia, The European Legal Forum "This admirable tome reveals and analyses the common synchronic and diachronic features of legal languages. Its scope is wide, encompassing the two major legal systems and four major legal languages - the entirety suffused with examples, linguistic and legal, sourced in numerous other languages. The author displays a rare mastery of both the legal and linguistic sides of his subject." Mairtin Mac Aodha, 'Meta - Translators' Journal'.

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0754648745
• ISBN 13: 9780754648741
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 364