ENG4169 – English legal language: Interpretation and meaning
Schedule, syllabus and examination date
Course content
This course explores ways that theoretical tools from linguistics can be applied to deepen understanding of legal interpretation, and, conversely, ways in which legal texts provide challenging problems and data for theories of language and its use. We focus on legal texts from common law (Anglo-American) jurisdictions.
Key questions for this course include:
- How do legal texts and their interpretations differ from other kinds of language use?
- What is the illocutionary force of statutes? Do they create new legal facts or are they (also) orders to be followed?
- What determines the meaning of a legal text? The original meanings of the words used, their meanings now, intentions of the legislature, or something else?
- How do judges and other consumers of legal texts understand and interpret them? What are the roles played by linguistic decoding, inference, and more creative legal decision-making?
Learning outcome
After completing this course you will
- be familiar with the application of linguistic theories to the analysis of legal texts, particularly statutes
- be familiar with legal canons of interpretation such as noscitur a sociis
- have knowledge of theoretical accounts of implicature, pragmatic enrichment, and speech acts
- have insight into the contested notion of the meaning of a legal text, and some of the competing accounts, including textualism and intentionalism
- have advanced skills in scholarly writing that applies one or more linguistic theories to legal texts
Admission to the course
Students who are admitted to study programmes at UiO must each semester register which courses and exams they wish to sign up for in Studentweb.
If you are not already enrolled as a student at UiO, please see our information about admission requirements and procedures.
Students admitted to other master’s programmes may, upon application, be admitted to the course if this is cleared with their own programme.
Recommended previous knowledge
The course assumes a good proficiency in written and oral English.
This course is aimed those with interest in both linguistic theory and the study of law, and knowledge of at least one of them.
Teaching
The course is taught for 11 weeks of the semester, with a two hour seminar per week: 22 hours in all.
Students are expected to attend all teaching. The quality of the teaching depends on active participation in all seminars. If you are not able to attend, you must give notice to the seminar teacher no later than the same day as the absence.
If you miss a seminar, it’s your responsibility to make sure that you have covered the content.
Obligatory activities:
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Students are required to hand in one paper of an acceptable standard by a set deadline during the semester to be allowed to submit the term paper.
Read more about rules concerning valid excuses and how to apply for approved absences or postponements.
Examination
The obligatory requirements must be fulfilled in order to qualify for the exam.
The assessment of the course is based on a term paper of approximately ten standard pages (a standard page consists of 2,300 characters). This does not include references and bibliography. In the evaluation, both content and language are taken into account.
Language of examination
The language of examination is English.
Grading scale
Grades are awarded on a scale from A to F, where A is the best grade and F is a fail. Read more about the grading system.
Resit an examination
More about examinations at UiO
- Use of sources and citations
- Special exam arrangements due to individual needs
- Withdrawal from an exam
- Illness at exams / postponed exams
- Explanation of grades and appeals
- Resitting an exam
- Cheating/attempted cheating
You will find further guides and resources at the web page on examinations at UiO.