Introduction

An interesting examination of law as language use or discourse, this study looks at the transformation of ordinary language into a special discourse for the purposes of the legal system.

Legal Discourse and Public Perception

It is widely accepted that legal discourse is obscure, and often the public resent the fact that access to the law of the land is obstructed by the opaqueness of legal language.

Justification of Legal Language

This book argues that the development and maintenance of law's special language can be justified. The myth that law can be written in either plain or ordinary language is exploded, and the linguistic obscurity of law is traced to its necessary complexity.

Legal Language and Ordinary Language

The notion of representation is applied to the relation that exists between legal language and ordinary language.