Diversity and Tolerance in Socio-Legal Contexts: Explorations in the Semiotics of Law / Edition 1

by Vijay K. Bhatia, Anne Wagner

Overview

Why is there so much resistance to recent issues of tolerance and diversity? Despite efforts of the international community to encourage open-mindedness, recent attempts at international, political and economic integration have shown that religious, cultural and ethnic tolerance and diversity remain under threat. The contributions in the volume reflect the growing importance of these issues and why resistance is so widespread. Part I addresses the relationship between the language of law and its power, whilst Part II explores the interplay of tolerance and diversity under visual, legislative and interpretative perspectives. This collection as a whole offers a combination of varied perspectives on the analysis, application and exploitation of laws and will be a valuable source of information for those interested in the general area of language and the law.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780754673866
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	03/23/2009
Pages:	268
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Anne Wagner, is an Associate Professor in Applied Linguistics., Université du Littoral Côte d'Opale, France. She is the President of the International Roundtables for the Semiotics of Law and Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal for the Semiotics of Law (Springer). Her main research interests include legal language, law and semiotics, contemporary legal theory, law and literature. She is one of the editors of special issues published in the International Journal for the Semiotics of Law and has also published extensively on these issues in a variety of scholarly venues. Vijay K. Bhatia is a Visiting Professor in the Department of English and Communication at City University of Hong Kong. He has published widely on legal discourse. He is best known for his work Genre Analysis of legal genres. He has worked on several research projects, two of which are Analyzing Genre-bending in Corporate Disclosure Documents, and International Arbitration Practice: A Discourse Analytical Study, in which he leads research teams from about 20 countries, which consist of specialists from law, arbitration, and discourse analysis.

Table of Contents

Introduction The International Dual Nature of Law: Tolerance and Diversity, Anne Wagner, Vijay K. Bhatia; Part I The Semiotic Foundation of Diversity and Tolerance; Chapter 1 Tolerance, Pluralism and ‘Fighting Faiths’: Seeking the Sources of US Constitutional Meaning, Frederick P. Lewis; Chapter 2 ‘When the Law Speaks’: Acts of Intolerance, Threats to Group-Identity, and Confidence in Law and Rights, Ira L. Strauber; Chapter 3 Mediated Semiosis in the Courtroom: Non-Verbal Communicators and the Usefulness of Audio Video Technology as a Tool by which to Oversee Justice, Isabell Petrinic; Chapter 4 1An earlier version of this chapter appeared in 2005; see . In the English translation Emese Gál and Andrea Fenyődi helped me., István H. Szilágyi; Chapter 5 ‘Une Certaine Idée de l’Homme, une Certaine Idée de la France’: the Rhetorical Construction of Tolerance in French Political Discourse, Pamela Hobbs; Chapter 6 Shifts in the Concept of War: New War Terminology and its Legal Consequences, Hanneke van Schooten; Part II Case Analyses of Diversity and Tolerance; Chapter 7 1My debt and gratitude for being supported in thinking on this subject are many but Part Icular mention should be made of Christine B. Harrington (New York University), Clara Velasco Rico (Universitat Pompeu Fabra), Ira Strauber (Grinnell College) and Richard Mohr (University of Wollongong); all members of the 5th International Roundtable for the Semiotics of Law, ‘Law, Tolerance and Diversity’, 17–20 May 2006, Boulogne sur Mer (France), Convenor: Anne Wagner., John Brigham; Chapter 8 Legality beyond the scope of Policy, Sarah Marusek; Chapter 9 On Sight/On Site: Visuality in Native Title Claims: Can We Even Speak?, Tracey Summerfield, Alec McHoul; Chapter 10 Race, Class and the Supreme Court: Rodriguez v. San Antonio Independent School District (1973), William Pencak; Chapter 11 Legal Terms across Communities: Divergence behind Convergence in Law, Le Cheng, King Kui Sin; Chapter 12 Women as Legal subjects and Objects in contemporary china, Deborah Cao; Researching “Exploration” in the semiotics of the Law, Christopher N. Candlin;

Editorial Reviews

'This book shows in convincingly elegant contributions how critical approaches to law have, independent from ideological or interest-driven criticisms, a semiotic foundation that provides a reconsideration of signs, symbols and meanings pertaining to social reality.' Jan M. Broekman, Penn State University, USA 'The distinguished editors have managed to bring together an impressive range of authors from four continents writing on a wide variety of topics linked to the book's central concern - disadvantage due to race, class, gender, religion, education, nationality, handicap, minority status and regional origin. This will be an excellent source book for postgraduate courses in the general area of Language and the Law.' Malcolm Coulthard, Aston University, UK

From the Publisher