Old English Legal Language

"Many of the texts in this volume are edited here for the first time in English and likewise for the first time within the context of Wulfstan's thought and career. In bringing together editions of his most significant works on law, politics, and ecclesiastical governance, this anthology is thus intended to shed light on the range of Wulfstan's legal writings while also demonstrating the vibrancy of English political thought in the decades before the Norman Conquest. Over the course of his career, Wulfstan composed a variety of tracts on such topics as the proper exercise of royal authority, the inviolability of ecclesiastical sanctuary, and the structure of the ideal society. Although the extent to which these tracts reflected actual practice remains unclear, they nonetheless provided Wulfstan with the opportunity to promote his views on how best to govern a Christian kingdom. It is in these texts that we see Wulfstan honing his distinctive "homiletic style," combining the moral admonitions and rhetorical flourishes of a sermon with the legalistic vocabulary and causal syntax of a law code. Wulfstan draws these two seemingly incompatible genres together through the use of a vigorous prose idiom that borrows the rhythm, alliteration, and occasionally even something resembling the meter of Old English poetry. This mingling of genres is the result of neither accident nor carelessness on Wulfstan's part: rather, it reflects the archbishop's view of his ecclesiastical and legislative roles as two halves of a single enterprise. For Wulfstan, the minister and lawgiver share the same obligation to safeguard the political stability and moral integrity of the community"--

This corpus-based study examines the lexical field of theft in the Anglo-Saxon law-codes and documents containing reports of lawsuits (charters, writs, and some chapters of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle). The individual Old English lexemes are analysed not only in terms of their meaning, collocation patterns, and Latin translations, but also, more unusually in a field-approach, with reference to their distribution over the various textual genres and the discourse strategies dominant in these. Although primarily linguistic in focus, a detailed description of the theft-offences and the wider context in which they occur should also be of interest to the historian.

This corpus-based study examines the lexical field of theft in the Anglo-Saxon law-codes and documents containing reports of lawsuits (charters, writs, and some chapters of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle). The individual Old English lexemes are analysed not only in terms of their meaning, collocation patterns, and Latin translations, but also, more unusually in a field-approach, with reference to their distribution over the various textual genres and the discourse strategies dominant in these. Although primarily linguistic in focus, a detailed description of the theft-offences and the wider context in which they occur should also be of interest to the historian.

This history of legal language slices through the polysyllabic thicket of legalese. The text shows to what extent legalese is simply a product of its past and demonstrates that arcane vocabulary is not an inevitable feature of our legal system.

This is that rare book which both informs and entertains. It is scholarly and sprightly - an unusual combination for any book, let alone one treating of the law. Lawyers and laymen alike can read it with profit and amusement. I hope many do, for it deserves a wide audience. The Honorable Arthur J. Goldberg (1908-1990), United States Supreme Court, The New York Herald Tribune A superb piece of writing, lucid, witty, meticulous in scholarship and unfailingly interesting. Robert R. Kirsch, Los Angeles Times We now have a full-scale study of our legal language that is written with an extraordinary awareness for vacuous words and phrases and an astounding amount of research into their history and usage.... This book has a practical value to every lawyer who drafts a document, a pleading, or even a letter. It is a great plea to bring the law up to date by awakening us to the empty verbalisms in which we think we are housing our thoughts.... It is a rare book that has value for all lawyers, despite the tendency of publishers and reviewers to make this claim with great frequency. Here, however, is a rarity. No lawyer could fail to learn many facts of surprising interest. But beyond this, 'The Language of the Law' presents a subtle challenge to the American Bar, a stimulus to improve our work and our profession by sharpening the product of our minds. If we meet this challenge head-on, we can perform a far more fundamental and genuine service to our clients, the public, and to ourselves than any other area of improvement, including court reform, can possibly offer. Ray D. Henson, American Bar Association Journal It should be compulsory reading for lawyers and judges; for a layman it is learning and entertainment of high order. The Honorable Matthew O. Tobriner (d. 1982), Associate Justice, Supreme Court of California, San Francisco Chronicle ...[B]rilliant and discursive treatise, concisely and urbanely presented,...a remarkable stimulus, recommended highly to the general reader as well as the wordy professional. Hugo Sonnenschein, Jr., Chicago Daily News

This book tells what the language of the law is, how it got that way and how it works out in the practice. The emphasis is more historical than philosophical, more practical than pedantic.

Law and Order in Anglo-Saxon England explores English legal culture and practice across the Anglo-Saxon period, beginning with the essentially pre-Christian laws enshrined in writing by King AEthelberht of Kent in c. 600 and working forward to the Norman Conquest of 1066. It attempts to escape the traditional retrospective assumptions of legal history, focused on the late twelfth-century Common Law, and to establish a new interpretative framework for the subject, more sensitive to contemporary cultural assumptions and practical realities. The focus of the volume is on the maintenance of order: what constituted good order; what forms of wrongdoing were threatening to it; what roles kings, lords, communities, and individuals were expected to play in maintaining it; and how that worked in practice. Its core argument is that the Anglo-Saxons had a coherent, stable, and enduring legal order that lacks modern analogies: it was neither state-like nor stateless, and needs to be understood on its own terms rather than as a variant or hybrid of these models. Tom Lambert elucidates a distinctively early medieval understanding of the tension between the interests of individuals and communities, and a vision of how that tension ought to be managed that, strikingly, treats strongly libertarian and communitarian features as complementary. Potentially violent, honour-focused feuding was an integral aspect of legitimate legal practice throughout the period, but so too was fearsome punishment for forms of wrongdoing judged socially threatening. Law and Order in Anglo-Saxon England charts the development of kings' involvement in law, in terms both of their authority to legislate and their ability to influence local practice, presenting a picture of increasingly ambitious and effective royal legal innovation that relied more on the cooperation of local communal assemblies than kings' sparse and patchy network of administrative officials.

English is the dominant language of international business relations. Consequently, a good working knowledge of English is essential for today's legal or business professional. This book, written by an experienced English lawyer, is a comprehensive and highly practical handbook, which focuses on English that is used for legal communication. Divided into three sections, it covers: writing clear and accurate legal documents and letters in English the key situations in which legal and business professionals use oral communication the language used in international business contracts. Concluding with a series of helpful glossaries that explain the meaning of different kinds of words and phrases often found in legal and business English, this is an excellent reference tool for those seeking to improve their legal English.

As broad in scope as the interests of its honoree, this volume brings together leading historians of early English and continental law to pay tribute to Lisi Oliver. The essays gathered here range from the earliest laws of the kings of Kent in the seventh century to the reception of Old English law in the seventeenth. Interested both in how law was made and the ways in which it was applied, the contributors explore the careers of such prominent legislators as Alfred the Great and Wulfstan of York while also examining issues of gender, social status and textual transmission. This volume will be essential reading for anyone interested in the history of law, the legal culture of Anglo-Saxon England, and the emergence of modern concepts of self and statehood in the early middle ages.