ADVANCED LEGAL ENGLISH
Academic year and teacher
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- Versione italiana
- Academic year
- 2020/2021
- Teacher
- MAGDALENA ELISABETH DE LEEUW
- Credits
- 6
- Didactic period
- Secondo Semestre
- SSD
- L-LIN/12
Training objectives
- The course aims to familiarise students with the workings of a common law legal system, and to develop competencies in legal English to an advanced level in all four language areas (reading, writing, listening and speaking).
Prerequisites
- To follow this course, your general English should be of a good intermediate (B2) to advanced level. You should preferably have a basic knowledge of legal English.
Course programme
- The course is divided into two parts.
The first part addresses the essential points members from civil law countries need to understand in approaching the study of Legal English as a Legal Language and as part of the Common law tradition: (i) A brief discussion of the historical development of common law; (ii) The role of the legislature and the courts; (iii) English legal reasoning: the doctrine of judicial precedent and the interpretation of statutes; (iv) The common lawyers attitude towards law: procedural thinking and procedural language; (v) The differences between the civil law and common law legal systems.
The second part of the course is intended to help students to read, understand and use English in a range of situations typical of legal practice, with a focus on specific topics, such as (i) Contract law; (ii) Company law; (iii) Sale of Goods; (iv) Transnational commercial law; (v) Conflict of laws in private international law and (vi) Competition law. Didactic methods
- Slides and other teaching materials will be uploaded on the website of the course. Interactive lessons are based on consultation and discussion of a wide variety of original legal texts in English; a systematic approach to learning legal terminology and appropriate legal expression is an integral part of the learning process. In an international classroom environment, students are encouraged to prepare presentations and improve academic writing skills (essay-writing).
Learning assessment procedures
- The exam is structured as follows:
Written exam: open and multiple choice questions.
Test listening: listening to a conversation audio and answering the questions. Reference texts
- For students who regularly attend the course (i.e., four absences maximum)
- Lectures notes, slides from the class presentations, readings provided during the course and available online
- Amy Krois-Lindner, Translegal, Jeremy Day, International Legal English, Second Edition, Cambridge University Press, 2011 (only the chapters corresponding to the course programme must be studied)
For students who do not attend the course:
- Amy Krois-Lindner, Translegal, Jeremy Day, International Legal English, Second Edition, Cambridge University Press, 2011
