What exactly is legal translation?

In the article below I wanted to provide some insights into the arcane world of the legal translator. The aim was to have some kind of go-to text that I could send people who have no idea what the profession is all about.

I hope readers will find it useful – some may find it informative depending on their backgrounds, and I would encourage any readers who feel that it could help to raise others’ awareness to share the post liberally. It’s all about roaring, don’t forget! 😉

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What exactly is document review?



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What exactly is corpus linguistics?

This post, in my mini-series of posts entitled ‘What exactly is…”, will try to give an overview of Corpus Linguistics and hopefully pique your interest to find out more.

First of all, a definition: a corpus is a collection of texts, often used to study language. These days, corpora are generally held electronically – access is much faster and analysis can be more powerful.

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What exactly is comparative law?

Continuing with my mini-series “What exactly is…” (following on from What exactly is forensic linguistics? and What exactly is a lawyer-linguist?), today let’s take a brief look at the subject of Comparative Law.

The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Law* describes the discipline as “time-honoured but not easily understood in all its dimensions”. According to Michael Bogdan**, comparative law may be defined as “the comparing of different legal systems with the purpose of ascertaining the similarities and differences“.

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What exactly is a lawyer-linguist?




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What exactly is forensic linguistics?

This post tries to collect together a few definitions of a subject that is in the news more and more often – forensic linguistics.

The 2010 publication The Routledge Handbook of Forensic Linguistics states, in its introduction: “Forensic Linguistics is the study of language and the law, covering topics from legal language and courtroom discourse to plagiarism. It also concerns the applied (forensic) linguist who is involved in providing evidence, as an expert, for the defence and prosecution, in areas as diverse as blackmail, trademarks and warning labels.

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