12 Introduction

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Law, Language, and the Law

School Classroom

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n this chapter we survey the literatures and scholarship that provide the theo-

retical and empirical foundations for this research, focusing on issues of language

and law. It is through language that social problems are translated into legal issues.
At the broadest level, this study brings together two related inquiries: Is there a
distinctive approach to translation embodied in the canonical legal language taught

to law students? And if so, how do people learn to use that distinctive language as
they become legal professionals—in their first months of training to be the law-

yers and judges whose voices and writings perform the act of legal translation? To
address these questions, we need to develop an understanding of how language op-
erates in legal and other social settings. After all, it is through language that the law
works to shape our lives, and it is through language that people, including profes-
sionals, come to understand the world in particular ways.
Thus, in the law school classroom, a seemingly narrow domain, we actually
find a fascinating nexus of wider processes. This study uses a close analysis of law
school language to ask broad questions about the role of language in the constitu-
tion of selves, law, and society. It is obvious that an adequate reply to such ques-
tions would demand interdisciplinary investigations; accordingly, this research
bridges a number of divides. At the theoretical level, I draw on work in linguistics,
anthropology, legal theory, social theory, educational research, and psychology.
In terms of methodology, this study unites interpretive, linguistic, and quantita-
tive analyses to uncover overarching patterns in the classrooms as well as the nu-
anced meanings that animate those patterns. This chapter provides a brief overview
of scholarship that has examined the role of language in society and culture, in
socialization practices, and in education; it concludes with a discussion of the role
of language in law, legal reasoning, and legal education. The resulting synthesis of