Sustaining vocabulary knowledge growth through corpus-generated lists of lexical bundles and keywords in the law of contracts.

Non-native English-speaking law students and international legal practitioners who speak English as an additional language face significant challenges while pursuing legal studies at English-only institutions, participating in professional training or catering to the legal needs of an increasingly diverse clientele. One of the most difficult challenges is sustaining adequate lexical knowledge to initiate and maintain communication regarding legal subject matter. This study aims to address this issue by presenting two short lists of lexical bundles and keywords (KWs) of the Law of Contracts. Through a combination of corpus analysis and linguistics methodology, these lists are designed to provide a pedagogically useful and subject-focused source for learning academic vocabulary. Bundles are functionally classified into referentials, discourse organisers and stance markers, and their structural forms are filtered into distinct nominal, prepositional and verbal categories. KWs are POS-tagged to allow for direct instructional intervention. This research discusses the pedagogical implications of the research for teaching English for legal purposes.

Measuring judiciarization of people with mental illnesses.

The judiciarization of the psychiatric subject is a two-sided process. It could anti-discriminate people with mental illnesses but, at the same time, it could potentially provoke pathologization of mental illnesses. Current methodologies proposed to measure this important and complicated process for people with mental illnesses do not allow analysis on multiple levels (the macro, meso, and micro). In this article, to fill this gap we propose a methodological strategy that helps to investigate judiciarization of people with mental illnesses on multiple levels at once. This approach is based on critical discourse analysis of legal documents and court decisions that feature people with the poor mental health. Namely, we suggest how to measure the level or degree of judiciarization, its geographical evenness, actors in the legal process, its dimensions (the law branches of its occurrence), and linguistic content. We applied this methodology in examining 1,243 legal documents and 327,311 court decisions that were issued by agents of the Russian law system. The research findings show that judiciarization levels in Russia have been rising over the years, moving away from stigmatizing those with mental illnesses and towards anti-discrimination. Our paper could be of interest to socio-legal researchers and social policy practitioners.

The Journey to Comprehensibility: Court Forms as the First Barrier to Accessing Justice.

The article explores the comprehensibility of court forms by providing a quantitative overview and a qualitative analysis of such syntactic characteristics as length and structure of sentences and noun phrases. The analysis is viewed in the broader context of genre characteristics of court forms, their role within legal proceedings, and their function for eliciting narratives from court users. The findings show that while the elicitation strategies are not always coherently aligned with the guidance sections, the guidance itself condenses legal and procedural information into overly complex and verbose syntactic constructions. Comprehensibility barriers are thus created through breaks in information flow, ambiguous syntactic constructions, missing information and misalignment between questions and guidance. Such comprehension challenges have a negative impact on the potential of court users to effectively engage with legal proceedings.

Not Quite Right: Representations of Eastern Europeans in ECJ Discourse.

Although the increasing responsiveness of the Court of Justice of the European Union (the 'ECJ') jurisprudence to western Member States' concerns regarding Central and Eastern European ('CEE') nationals' mobility has garnered academic attention, ECJ discourse has not been scrutinised for how it approaches the CEE region or CEE movers. Applying postcolonial theory, this article seeks to fill this gap and to explore whether there are any indications that ECJ discourse is in line with the historical western-centric inferiorisation of the CEE region. A critical discourse analysis of a set of ECJ judgments and corresponding Advocate General opinions pertaining to CEE nationals illustrates not only how the ECJ adopts numerous discursive strategies to maintain its authority, but also how it tends to prioritise values of the western Member States, while overlooking interests of CEE movers. Its one-sided approach is further reinforced by referring to irrelevant facts and negative assumptions to create an image of CEE nationals as socially and economically inferior to westerners, as not belonging to the proper EU polity and as not quite deserving of EU law's protections. By silencing CEE nationals' voices, while disregarding the background of east/west socio-economic and political power differentials and precariousness experienced by many CEE workers in the west, such racialising discourse normalises ethnicity- and class-based stereotypes. These findings also help to contextualise both EU and western policies targeting CEE movers and evidence of their unequal outcomes in the west, and are in line with today's nuanced expressions of racisms. By illustrating the ECJ's role in addressing values pertinent to mobile CEE individuals, this study facilitates a fuller appreciation of the ECJ's power in shaping and reflecting western-centric EU identity and policies. Engaging with such issues will not only allow us to better appreciate-and question-the ECJ's legitimacy, but might also facilitate a better understanding of power dynamics within the EU. This study also makes significant theoretical and methodological contributions. It expands (and complicates) the application of postcolonial theory to contemporary intra-EU processes, while illustrating the usefulness of applying critical discourse analysis to exploring differentiation, exclusion, subordination and power within legal language.

The Role of Culture in Legal Languages, Legal Interpretation and Legal Translation.

The aim of this short essay is to highlight and concisely explore-but not address in depth-some cultural aspects related to legal languages, legal interpretation and legal translation. We would like to consider briefly the following questions: How can elements of legal language, as exemplified by proper names and euphemisms, be connected with cultural (extra-linguistic) factors influencing language units' formation? How can judicial discourse reflect the culture of a given justice system? How can the legal interpretation affect the degree of legal culture? Are theories of legal interpretation universal or applicable to specific legal cultures? What is the impact of culture on the context of legal translation? How can the cultural background affect the decision to use terms in translation? How does cyberculture impact legal translation?

A legal analysis of Australian criminal cases involving defendants with autism spectrum disorder charged with online sexual offending.

This paper examines how the symptomology of the small number of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) charged with online sexual offenses in Australia is established during legal arguments and conceived by the judiciary to impact legal liability and offending behavior. This study aims to provide empirical support for the proposition that judicial discourses regarding the connection between ASD and online sexual offending, including conduct related to child exploitation material (CEM), have little bearing on overall questions of criminal liability or the use of alternative penal dispositions. It does so by exploring a sample of nine recent Australian criminal cases, involving ten rulings, that examine how evidence of ASD is raised in legal arguments in ways that suggest a diagnosed condition may have contributed significantly to the alleged wrongdoing. We conclude by suggesting current Australian judicial practice requires more sensitivity to the impact of clinical factors associated with ASD in shaping alternative supervisory and non-custodial dispositions for individuals convicted of online sexual offenses.

Alguns apontamentos linguísticos ao discurso jurídico contemporâneo com vistas a uma ética do cuidado e da proteção à pessoa idosa / Some linguistic notes to contemporary legal discourse with a view to an ethics of care and protection for the elderly / Algunas notas linguísticas al discurso jurídico contemporáneo. con miras a una ética del cuidado y protección para los ancianos

O presente artigo tem por objetivo apresentar algumas considerações linguísticas ao discurso jurídico contemporâneo, no sentido de uma racionalização ou adequação desse discurso em prol da pessoa idosa, muitas vezes já em condição de fragilidade ou dependência, necessitando que a documentação forense possa ganhar mais efetividade, celeridade, cuidado e segurança, com vistas a uma ética do cuidado e da proteção ao longevo. O procedimento metodológico de abordagem do tema aqui adotado é o raciocínio dedutivo-argumentativo, por meio do qual se partirá da ideia da fragilidade da pessoa idosa, que exige uma "mudança de rumo" quanto à celeridade das ações, para que o idoso envolvido possa, ainda dentro dos poucos anos finais de sua vida, desfrutar dos resultados bem-sucedidos das causas forenses.

The purpose of this paper is to present some linguistic notes to contemporary legal discourse, in the sense of rationalizing or adapting this discourse in favor of the elderly person, often already in a condition of fragility or dependence, requiring that the forensic documentation may gain more effectiveness, speed, care and safety, with a view to an ethics of care and long-term protection. The methodological procedure for approaching the theme adopted here is deductive-argumentative reasoning, through which one will start from the idea of the frailty of the elderly person, which requires a "change of course" regarding the speed of the actions, so that the elderly involved can, even within the final few years of your life, enjoy the successful results of forensic causes.

El propósito de este artículo es presentar algunas notas lingüísticas al discurso legal contemporáneo, en el sentido de racionalizar o adaptar este discurso a favor de la persona mayor, a menudo ya en una condición de fragilidad o dependencia, que requiere que la documentación forense pueda obtener más efectividad, rapidez, cuidado y seguridad, con miras a una ética de cuidado y protección a largo plazo. El procedimiento metodológico para abordar el tema adoptado aquí es el razonamiento deductivo-argumentativo, a través del cual se partirá de la idea de la fragilidad de la persona mayor, que requiere un "cambio de rumbo" con respecto a la velocidad de las acciones, para que las personas mayores involucradas puedan, incluso en los últimos años de su vida, disfrute de los resultados exitosos de causas forenses.

Ovodonación y subjetividad: aportes clínicos a partir de un estudio teórico empírico / Egg donation and subjectivity: clinical contributions from a theoretical empirical study

Es deseable comunicarle a un niño concebido por ovodonación el procedimiento utilizado para su gestación? ¿Tiene el nacido por esta técnica derecho a conocer a quien ha aportado los gametos? ¿Qué efectos puede tener el modo de revelación de esta información en la estructuración psíquica del niño y en el contexto familiar y social? El nuevo Código Civil y Comercial de la Nación Argentina de entrada a estas cuestiones respecto de la paternidad y la maternidad, en los casos de TRHA con técnicas heterólogas. Este artículo propone una aproximación teórico-empírica al problema. En una primera instancia se analizan las respuestas de usuarios de la técnica de ovodonación, aportadas por una investigación realizada en un centro de reproducción humana asistida. En segundo lugar, se contrastan estos datos con las respuestas de profesionales y legos en materia de temas médicos y/o psicológicos, a quienes se les plantea la situación hipotética de transmitir la información al nacido. Finalmente, se extraen conclusiones, a partir de sistematizar cuatro variantes centrales: derecho a la identidad, edad del niño, fantasías inconscientes, relatos ficcionales. Se busca así suplementar la categoría jurídica de la "voluntad procreacional" a la luz de los aportes del campo de la subjetividad, contribuyendo a su mayor conocimiento y aplicación.

Is it advisable to communicate to a child, conceived by egg donation, the procedure used for its gestation? Does the child born by this technique have the right to know who has provided the gametes? What effects may the information disclosure have on the psychic structuring of the child, the family and the social context? The new Civil and Commercial Code of the Argentine Nation introduced these questions regarding paternity and maternity in cases of Human Reproductive Technology with heterologous techniques. This article proposes a theoretical-empirical approach to the problem. In the first place, the responses of the egg donation technique users, which were obtained through a research who was carried out in an Assisted Human Reproductive Technology Center, are analyzed. Secondly, these data are contrasted with the responses of professionals and laymen in matters of medic and/or psychological issues, to whom the hypothetical situation of communicating the information to the child is raised. Finally, conclusions are drawn systematized by four variants: right to identity, child's age, unconscious fantasies and fictional stories. It seeks to supplement the legal category of "procreational will" from the contributions of the subjectivity field, to promote its greater knowledge and practice.