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

O'Barr, William M.,Conley, John M.

ISBN 10: 0226114880 / ISBN 13: 9780226114880

Published by University of Chicago Press, 2005

About this Item

Good - Bumped and creased book with tears to the extremities, but not affecting the text block, may have remainder mark or previous owner's name - GOOD Standard-sized.

Seller Inventory # M0226114880Z3

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Just Words, Second Edition: Law, Language, and Power (Chicago Series in Law and Society)
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication Date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0226114880
• ISBN 13: 9780226114880
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition: 2nd Edition
• Condition: Good

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.

Conley and O'Barr 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 that will be welcomed by students and specialists alike.

About the Author

John M. Conley the is 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. Their many works include Rules versus Relationships, also published by the University of Chicago Press.