Speaking of language and law : conversations on the work of Peter Tiersma

Among the most prominent scholars of language and law is Peter Tiersma, a law professor at Loyola Law School with a doctorate in linguistics (co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of Language and Law). Tiersma's significant body of work traverses a variety of legal and linguistic fields. This book offers a selection of twelve of Tiersma's most influential publications, divided into five thematic areas that are critical to both law and linguistics: Language and Law as a Field of Inquiry, Legal Language and its History, Language and Civil Liability, Language and Criminal Justice, and Jury Instructions. Each paper is accompanied by a brief commentary from a leading scholar in the field, offering a substantive conversation about the ramifications of Tiersma's work and the disagreements that have often surrounded it.

• Preface p. xi
• Acknowledgments p. xv
• Contributors p. xvii
• Part I Legal Language and Its History
• 1 On the Origins of Legal English p. 3 Peter M. Tiersma
• 2 Why is Legal Language So Conservative? p. 11 Peter M. Tiersma
• 3 Writing the Law in England p. 16 Peter M. Tiersma
• 4 Some Myths about Legal Language p. 27 Peter M. Tiersma
• 5 On the Relationship Between Legal and Ordinary Language p. 35 Frederick Schauer
• 6 Legal Language and Its History: Quo Imus? Qua Imus? p. 39 Ronald R. Butters
• 7 Philosophical Hermeneutics in the Age of Pixels: Hans-Georg Gadamer, Peter Tiersma, and Dasein in the Age of the Internet p. 43 Frank S. Ravitch
• 8 The Language of Lawyers and the Language of Plumbers p. 47 Edward Finegan
• 9 "Words, Words, Words"-But What's in a Legal Text? p. 51 Dieter Stein
• Part II The Language of Contracts and Wills
• 10 Text, Tape and Pixels in the Making of Wills p. 59 Peter M. Tiersma
• 11 Reassessing Unilateral Contracts p. 67 Peter M. Tiersma
• 12 Philosophy of Language, Unilateral Contracts, and the Law p. 76 Brian H. Bix
• 13 How to Do Legal Things with Words: The Contracts Scholarship of Peter Tiersma p. 79 Sidney W. Delong
• 14 Tiersma Contra Mundum: in Defence of Promises p. 83 Peter Goodrich
• 15 Formalism, Speech Acts, and the Realities of Contract Formation p. 88 Jeffrey M. Lipshaw
• Part III Speech and Action
• The Meaning of Silence In Law
• 16 The Language of Silence: Implication and the Role of Conversation p. 97 Peter M. Tiersma
• 17 Symbolic Destruction p. 110 Peter M. Tiersma
• 18 Law's Metalinguistics: Silence, Speech, and Action p. 117 Elizabeth Mertz
• 19 The Sounds of Silence p. 122 Malcolm Coulthard
• 20 Speech or Silence: Within and Beyond Language and Law p. 127 Meizhen Liao
• Consenting
• 21 The Language of Consent in Rape Law p. 133 Peter M. Tiersma
• 22 "Inferring" Consent in the Context of Rape and Sexual Assault p. 141 Susan Ehrlich
• 23 Felicitous Consent p. 145 Tim Grant and Kerrie Spaul
• 24 Reflections on Peter Tiersma's "The Language and Consent in Rape Law" p. 150 Gregory M. Matoesian
• 25 Speaking of Consent p. 153 Gail Stygall
• Defaming
• 26 Defamatory Language and the Act of Accusing p. 159 Peter M. Tiersma
• 27 Defamation as Speech Act: A Theory that Works p. 168 John M. Conley
• 28 Applying Tiersma's Defamation Theory to Defamation Cases p. 171 Roger W. Shuy
• 29 Scarlet Letter or Badge of Honour? Semantic Interpretation in Changing Contexts of Culture p. 175 Krzysztof Kredens
• Part IV Interpreting Laws
• 30 Dynamic Statutes p. 183 Peter M. Tiersma
• 31 The Textualization of Precedent p. 191 Peter M. Tiersma
• 32 Talk about Text as Text p. 198 Lawrence M. Solan
• 33 Textualization, Textualism, and Purpose-Stating Preambles p. 202 Jeffrey P. Kaplan
• 34 Between Paper and Pixels-How the Form of Modern Laws Changed Their Function p. 208 Dru Stevenson
• Part V Language and Criminal Justice
• Crimes of Language
• 35 The Language of Perjury: Speaking Falsely by Saying Nothing p. 217 Peter M. Tiersma
• 36 Threats p. 223 Lawrence M. Solan and Peter M. Tiersma
• 37 How We Play Games with Words in the Law p. 230 Janet Ainsworth
• 38 Toward a Communicative Approach to Law- and Rule-Making p. 235 Philip Gaines
• 39 Threats: A Pragmalinguistic Approach to the Analysis of a Speech Crime p. 239 Susan Berk-Seligson
• Criminal Justice and Everyday Speech
• 40 The Judge as Linguist p. 245 Peter M. Tiersma
• 41 Applied (Forensic) Linguistics in Autochthonic and Allochthonic Use p. 251 Hannes Kniffka
• 42 The Sound of Silence: Miranda Waivers, Selective Literalism, and Social Context p. 255 Richard A. Leo
• 43 Words Alone p. 259 Laurie L. Levenson
• 44 Sizzling Irons: Speaking of Criminal Justice p. 263 Frances Rock
• Part VI Jury Instructions
• 45 The History of Jury Instructions p. 271 Peter M. Tiersma
• 46 Capital Instructions: Comprehension as a Matter of Life or Death p. 277 Peter M. Tiersma
• 47 Navigating the Rocky Road p. 285 Bethany K. Dumas
• 48 Authority and Accommodation: Judicial Responses to Jurors' Questions p. 289 Chris Heffer
• 49 Jury Instructions Written for Jurors: A Perennial Challenge p. 293 Nancy S. Marder
• Bibliography of Peter Tiersma's Work p. 297
• Name Index p. 301
• Subject Index p. 305