I teach and research in Stylistics and Narrative Analysis at the University of Birmingham where I am Head of the Division of English Language and Applied Linguistics. I am editor of the Journal of Literary Semantics.
Language and the Law I and II: a brief description of the course
Language & Law I and II comprise a critical introduction to certain English legal texts and practices, studied and analysed from a predominantly linguistic point of view. There will be two broad strands of enquiry, developed in tandem throughout both semesters. Both are broadly discourse analytic, but one strand focuses on the legal texts of practitioners and their interpretation, while the other focuses on the language of non-practitioners (witnesses, defendants, etc.) where this becomes woven into the workings of the legal system.
Strand 1: The discourses of the law:
In both semesters, by studying selected readings among statutes, case law, press reports, and academic commentaries, a few representative issues which are of particular contemporary socio-legal resonance will be explored, with some emphasis on the ways these have been culturally and discoursally constituted and re-constituted, often by means of compelling or inspiring judgements or narratives (which thereby have some of the qualities of literature). Likely issues/topics include: theft, ethnicity, mental capacity, provocation, and defamation. In the process, 'keywords' in the law will be examined: terms such as reasonable, causation, recklessness, and neighbour. In addition, the process of statutory interpretation will be reviewed. At the end of the course students should not merely be familiar with certain kinds of legal content and text, but also understand some of the forces shaping these texts.
Strand 2: Analysing legal discourse.
In this strand of the course we will focus on
i) Courtroom discourse focusing in particular on the peculiar nature of interaction in the court-room, the differing characteristics of the examination and cross-examination of witnesses and the persuasive techniques of barristers in their opening and closing speeches. This will involve a court visit.
ii) Legal-lay communication. Here we will look at a series of highly important texts designed to 'communicate' with the general public: the police 'caution on arrest', 'temporary restraining orders' which are served on abusive partners, and 'jury instructions' used by judges to direct members of a jury on legal points.
iii) Authorship. In a significant number of cases texts whose authorship is disputed figure largely; these texts include anonymous threatening or race hate letter