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

by C. Heffer

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781403942470
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan UK
Publication date:	11/01/2005
Edition description:	2005
Pages:	253
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.03(d)

About the Author

CHRIS HEFFER is a lecturer in the Centre for Language and Communication Research at Cardiff University, Wales, where he teaches forensic linguistics and language and culture.

Table of Contents

List of Tables & Figures Acknowledgements Conventions Introduction PART 1: COMMUNICATION IN JURY TRIAL Legal-Lay Discourse Coming into Court The Trial as Complex Genre PART 2: WITNESS EXAMINATION The Counsel as Narrator The Counsel as Subject PART 3: THE JUDGE'S SUMMING-UP Directing the Jury (Re)Viewing the Case Conclusion Appendices Notes References Index