Legal Language

by Peter M. Tiersma

Statutes, judicial opinions, contracts, deeds, and wills profoundly affect our daily lives, but their language tends to be often nearly impossible to understand. In this lively history of legal language, Peter Tiersma slices through the thicket of legalese, explaining where it comes from, why lawyers continue to cling to it, and why it's doesn't have to be an inevitable feature of our legal system.

" Legal Language will resonate with lawyers . . . and any non-lawyer who has waded through legal documents, or has tuned in to the latest trial on Court TV."—Carmie D. Boccuzzi, Jr., Boston Book Review

"[A] masterful, highly readable, and enjoyable book. . . . Legal Language is truly a fun book to read."—David Schultz, Law and Politics Book Review

Genres: Nonfiction, Linguistics

328 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1999

Reviews

[Charles Eliot · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this book because I was fiddling around with Amazon's full-text search feature. I entered "leading question", and the search returned this book, with keywords of "estoppal" and "broccoli". I had to have it.

It's a hoot. The history of legal language is fascinating, especially if you've ever wondered why it seems to be a strange mixture of English, Latin, and French. The running theme is the glacially slow efforts to simplify legal language: the advances, and the apparently inevitable back-sliding.

[Adrian Halpert · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fantastic book! I'm surprised it isn't required reading in law schools. Now that I'm thinking of it, I'm surprised that I haven't seen any legal language courses offered during my time in law school, especially considering how important language is to the profession.
I digress - Tiersma has given us a fantastic analysis of how legal language developed, how it's used strategically in oral and written submissions and how it can separate, and at times, alienate lawyers from the public at large. The highlight for me was his masterful analysis of how language was used during the OJ Simpson trial, really driving home how language is itself a landscape we can shape and use for strategic ends. I also really enjoyed his idea that we can use AI to translate "legalese" into plain English. We already have Google translate, so why not?
Rather than writing in legalese, Tiersma's writing is smooth, organized and very accessible for lawyers and lay readers alike. Maybe he's trying to set an example! If so, he's done it well.
This is a very important book for anyone in the legal profession to read, language is arguably the most important tool we have in our toolkit after all, and will also be of interest to general readers who want to learn more about the law and how it works.
4.5/5 Stars

[Davis Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a good and interesting book. This book might be recommended prior to attending Law school as it aims to show how lawyers talk and write. It instead seemed to explain why lawyers talk and write the way they do and was instructional only to that extent. So, if you’re interested in history and linguistics and want to spend the time it takes you to read 245 pages learning about that, then this is an excellent and well-written book worth your time. If you’re interested in information that prepares you for law school, I’m not so sure its the right decision. Despite that, I did enjoy it even if it didn’t forward the purpose that was stated to me previously, so 4/5 stars.

[Volsung]

I only read the first two chapters of this, concerning Old and Middle English, and the Anglo-Norman dialect following the conquest of William I, and this was extremely interesting -- particularly the number of Anglo-Saxon (and Norse) archaisms preserved in legal language; I imagine from the impression of these first chapters that the remainder of the book is also very insightful and well-written.

[Shinaka]

This is the textbook for my Law and Language class and I must say it's quite interesting. All the terms are in bold for easy reference and Tiersma takes the time to explain the historical context behind legal language and its characteristics quite nicely.

[SallyStenger]

Mildly interesting. Goes into a history of the use of legal language, going back into Anglo Saxon times and moving forward with the French. In favor of plain English.