Detailed Information on Publication Record
2019
Law for Elites
SMEJKALOVÁ, Terezie and Markéta ŠTĚPÁNÍKOVÁBasic information
Original name
Law for Elites
Authors
SMEJKALOVÁ, Terezie (203 Czech Republic, guarantor, belonging to the institution) and Markéta ŠTĚPÁNÍKOVÁ (203 Czech Republic, belonging to the institution)
Edition
Studies in Logic, Grammar and Rhetoric, Bialystok, De Gruyter Open, 2019, 0860-150X
Other information
Language
English
Type of outcome
Článek v odborném periodiku
Field of Study
50501 Law
Country of publisher
Poland
Confidentiality degree
není předmětem státního či obchodního tajemství
References:
RIV identification code
RIV/00216224:14220/19:00108047
Organization unit
Faculty of Law
Keywords in English
legal language; legal elite; cultural capital; legal language fluency
Tags
Tags
International impact, Reviewed
Změněno: 25/6/2020 12:49, Mgr. Petra Georgala
Abstract
V originále
It has been claimed that to fully understand the law, one must know the language of normative texts and the relevant rules governing its use. It usually means that normative texts do not seem to be comprehensible enough to persons without formal legal training. In an on-going research project, we are focusing on the process of writing texts of legal regulations, conducting semi-structured interviews with those involved in drafting normative texts. In this paper, we focus on lawyers as a speech community of legal language speakers and we discuss why and to what extent this speech community may be considered an elite in a society. We show that competent usage of special – legal – language in regulating the whole society may help create a special group of persons wielding an important segment of cultural capital: the knowledge of legal language, and, in consequence, competent knowledge of law. Given the fact that this language is used to exercise (legal) power in a society, lawyers appear to be in the advantageous position of an elite. We argue that those who draft new legal texts reproduce writing rules and customs, constantly re-creating legal language as a language mostly incomprehensible to a non-competent speaker, and, in consequence, creating lawyers as an elite speech community.
Links
| GA17-14903S, research and development project |
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