Just Words: Law, Language, and Power (Chicago Series in Law and Society)

Conley, John M.; O'Barr, William M.; Conley Riner, Robin

ISBN 10: 022648436X / ISBN 13: 9780226484365

Published by University of Chicago Press, 2019

About this Item

pp. 264.

Seller Inventory # 370292315

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Just Words: Law, Language, and Power (Chicago Series in Law and Society)
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication Date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 022648436X
• ISBN 13: 9780226484365
• Binding: Soft cover
• Edition: 3rd Edition
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

Is it “just words” when a lawyer cross-examines a rape victim in the hopes of getting her to admit an interest in her attacker? Is it “just words” when the Supreme Court hands down a decision or when business people draw up a contract? In tackling the question of how an abstract entity exerts concrete power, Just Words focuses on what has become the central issue in law and language research: what language reveals about the nature of legal power.

John M. Conley, William M. O'Barr, and Robin Conley Riner show how the microdynamics of the legal process and the largest questions of justice can be fruitfully explored through the field of linguistics. Each chapter covers a language-based approach to a different area of the law, from the cross-examinations of victims and witnesses to the inequities of divorce mediation. Combining analysis of common legal events with a broad range of scholarship on language and law, Just Words seeks the reality of power in the everyday practice and application of the law. As the only study of its type, the book is the definitive treatment of the topic and will be welcomed by students and specialists alike. This third edition brings this essential text up to date with new chapters on nonverbal, or “multimodal,” communication in legal settings and law, language, and race.

About the Author

John M. Conley is the William Rand Kenan, Jr., Professor of Law at the University of North Carolina Law School. William M. O’Barr is professor of cultural anthropology at Duke University where he also holds appointments in the Departments of English and Sociology. Robin Conley Riner is associate professor of anthropology at Marshall University.