The Language of Jury Trial: A Corpus-Aided Analysis of Legal-Lay Discourse

Heffer, C.

Drawing on representative corpora of transcripts from over 100 English criminal jury trials, this stimulating new book explores the nature of 'legal-lay discourse', or the language used by legal professionals before lay juries. Careful analyses of genres such as witness examination and the judge's summing-up reveal a strategic tension between a desire to persuade the jury and the need to conform to legal constraints. The book also suggests ways of managing this tension linguistically to help, not hinder, the jury.

Details

Published by: Palgrave Macmillan

Publication Date: 2005-01-01

Format: Paperback

ISBN-10: 9781349521371

ISBN-13: 9781349521371

DOI: 10.1057/9780230502888

Dimensions: 216cm x140cm

Pages: 253