Language plays an essential role both in creating law and in governing its implementation. Providing an accessible and comprehensive introduction to this subject, Language and Law:

• describes the different registers and genres that make up spoken and written legal language and how they develop over time;
• analyses real-life examples drawn from court cases from different parts of the world, illustrating the varieties of English used in the courtroom by speakers occupying different roles;
• addresses the challenges presented to our notions of law and regulation by online communication;
• discusses the complex role of translation in bilingual and multilingual jurisdictions, including Hong Kong and Canada; and
• provides readings from key scholars in the discipline, including Lawrence Solan, Peter Goodrich, Marianne Constable, David Mellinkoff, and Chris Heffer.

With a wide range of activities throughout, this accessible textbook is essential reading for anyone studying language and law or forensic linguistics.

Sections A, B, and C of this book are freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license available at

Buy Language and Law by Alan Durant from Australia's Online Independent Bookstore, BooksDirect.