Language in the Legal Process

Language in the Legal Process , Janet Cotterill (ed.), 2002, Palgrave Macmillan http://www.palgrave.com 

Hardback: ISBN: 0333969022, Pages: 296, Price: GBP50.00 

Abstract: 

Linguists and lawyers from a range of countries and legal systems explore the language of the law and its participants, beginning with the role of the forensic linguist in legal proceedings, either as expert witness or in legal language reform. Subsequent chapters analyze different aspects of language and interaction in the chain of events from a police emergency call through the police interview context and into the courtroom, as well as appeal court and alternative routes to justice. 

Contents: 

- List of Tables 
- List of Figures 
- Acknowledgements 
- Notes on the Contributors 
- Introduction: Language in the Legal Process; 
  J. Cotterill 

PART I: THE LINGUIST IN THE LEGAL PROCESS 

1. To Testify or Not to Testify?
    R. W. Shuy
2. Whose Voice Is It? Invented and Concealed Dialogue in Written Records of Verbal Evidence Produced by the Police; 
    M. Coulthard
3. Textual Barriers to United States Immigration; 
    G. Stygall
4. The Language and Law of Product Warnings; 
    P. M. Tiersma

PART II: THE LANGUAGE OF THE POLICE AND THE POLICE INTERVIEW

5. 'I Just Need to Ask Somebody Some Questions': Sensitivities in Domestic Dispute Calls; 
     K. Tracy & R. R. Agne 
6. So...?: Pragmatic Implications of So-Prefaced Questions in Formal Police Interviews; 
    A. Johnson 
7. 'Three's a Crowd': Shifts in Dynamics in the Interpreted Interview; 
    S. Russell 
8. The Miranda Warnings and Linguistic Coercion: The Role of Footing in the Interrogation of a Limited-English Speaking Murder Suspect; 
    S. Berk-Seligson 

PART III: THE LANGUAGE OF THE COURTROOM I: LAWYERS AND WITNESSES 

9. 'Just One More Time...': Change and Continuity in Courtroom Narratives in the Trials of O J Simpson; 
     J. Cotterill 
10. 'Evidence Given in Unequivocal Terms': Gaining Consent of Aboriginal Young People in Court; 
       D. Eades 
11. The Clinton Scandal: Some Legal Lessons from Linguistics; 
      L. M. Solan 
12. Understanding the Other: A Case of Mis-Interpreting Culture-Specific Utterances at Alternative Dispute Resolution; 
      R. H. Moeketsi 

PART IV: THE LANGUAGE OF THE COURTROOM II: JUDGES AND JURIES 

13. The Meaning of 'I Go Bankrupt': An Essay in Forensic Linguistics; 
      S. Bernstein 
14. 'If You Were Standing in Marks and Spencers': Narrativization and Comprehension in the English Summing-Up; 
      C. Heffer 
15. Reasonable Doubt about Reasonable Doubt: Assessing Jury Instruction Adequacy in a Capital Case; 
      B. K. Dumas 
16. Discipline and Punishment in the Discourse of Legal Decision on Rape Trials; 
      D. de C. Figueiredo 

Index

JANET COTTERILL is a Lecturer in Language and Communication at Cardiff University. She is Joint Editor of Forensic Linguistics: The International Journal of Speech, Language and the Law. 

Hardback: ISBN: 0333969022, Pages: 296, Price: GBP50.00