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Regular version of the site

Legal Linguistics

2024/2025
Academic Year
ENG
Instruction in English
3
ECTS credits
Delivered at:
Department of Theory and History of Law and State (Faculty of Law)
Course type:
Compulsory course
When:
5 year, 2, 3 module

Instructor


Vatletsov, S.G.

Course Syllabus

Abstract

This course is intended to offer a layout principle of ESP course design tailored for the HSE law students based on Content-based instruction approach. The areas within each topic means to improve and expand the students’ specialist vocabulary, which will further enable them to operate effectively in the field of law. Admittedly, these issues can be viewed from different angles in diverse ESP contexts. Legal Linguistics is taught in the 3d year, its orientation is mainly practical. Focused on a career in the legal profession in an international setting, the aim is to enable the student to present information of a legal nature in English. It complements the English course, which was taken in the first and second year at the HSE, emphasizing the legal notions and concepts that the students have acquired through their study of the law and providing them with the necessary skills and linguistic tools. The course includes comparative analysis of Common Law jurisdictions and Civil law ones; extensive reading of legal texts; debates, case studies, doing research on a legal topic and defending it in class; giving oral presentations; writing business letters to clients. The final output is taking an oral course exam in Legal Linguistics. In this course, we also go through the various sub-fields and issues of legal linguistics; for example, plagiarism, transcription of legal terms, translation, interpreting, while explaining the nature of linguistic evidence and the role that languages play in the legal proceedings.
Learning Objectives

Learning Objectives

  • This course is aimed at preparing students to use legal English in different legal contexts To achieve this goal, they will have the opportunity to explore authentic legal texts (documents, contracts) as a way of knowing how they are filed in English, the speaking practice being a tool for problem solving. They will be actively engaged in reading and discussing legal cases.
Expected Learning Outcomes

Expected Learning Outcomes

  • experience in working with different information sources on theory and legal practice
  • skills on designing some types of contracts
  • skills on the use of various legal vocabulary in certain contexts
  • skills on using ICT and different modern technologies
  • know legal ontology models in civil and common law systems
  • are aware of lexical and syntactic peculiarities available to the English legalese in comparison to the Russian one
  • reason with legal rules
  • translate and interpret legal texts in their majors
  • can search and find a wanted information in English for academic and professional purposes
Course Contents

Course Contents

  • Topic 1. The practice of Law
  • Topic 2. Contract law.
  • Topic 3. Contracts: assignment and third party’s rights
  • Topic 4. Property and Real Property Law
  • Topic 5. Intellectual Property and Digital Language
  • Topic 6. Corporate Speak
  • Topic 7. Applying for a Legal Position
  • Topic 8. Analyzing Statutes and Cases
  • Topic 9. The Language of International Private Law
  • Topic 10. Legal Professionals in Practice
Assessment Elements

Assessment Elements

  • non-blocking test
  • non-blocking presentation
  • non-blocking exam
  • non-blocking Аудиторная работа
    1. Минимальное обязательное количество оценок за семестр для выведения аудиторной работы – 3 (ответа). В случае получения менее 3 оценок на семинарских занятиях, их количество делится на 3 для получения средней оценки Оаудиторная. 2. Допустимое минимальное количество пропусков по неуважительной причине в семестр – 4 часа в 1 и 2 модуле, 6 часов в 3 модуле. Студент, демонстрирующий положительные результаты по текущей успеваемости, а также который провел научное исследование по актуальной теме семинаров под руководство ведущего преподавателя, подготовил тезисы и выступил с ними на научной конференции, написал и опубликовал научную статью, освобождается от итоговой аттестации с оценкой “восемь”.
  • non-blocking Контрольная работа
Interim Assessment

Interim Assessment

  • 2022/2023 3rd module
    0.25 * exam + 0.25 * exam + 0.25 * presentation + 0.25 * presentation + 0.5 * test + 0.5 * test
  • 2023/2024 3rd module
    0.5 * Аудиторная работа + 0.5 * Аудиторная работа + 0.5 * Контрольная работа + 0.5 * Контрольная работа
  • 2024/2025 3rd module
    0.5 * Аудиторная работа + 0.5 * Аудиторная работа + 0.5 * Контрольная работа + 0.5 * Контрольная работа
Bibliography

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

  • Introduction to International Legal English : a course for classroom or self-study use, Student's Book, TransLegal, 4th ed., 160 p., Krois-Linder, A., Firth, M., 2012

Recommended Additional Bibliography

  • International Legal English. A course for classroom or self-study use, Krois-Lindner, A., 2011

Authors

  • Ватлецов Sergei Germanovich
  • Серова Екатерина Евгеньевна
  • POPOVA Tatiana PETROVNA