Professional English in Use: Law

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Gillian D. Brown and Sally Rice

Cambridge University Press 2007

ISBN: 0-521-68542-9

Suitable for upper-intermediate to advanced levels (B2-C1).

It has been said, on more than one occasion, that law is language:

"In a practical, everyday way, law is language ... [for] ... Language is the stuff of contracts, statutes, judicial opinions, and other legal documents ..." (from Conley John M. & O'Barr William M. (1998): Just Words: Law, Language, and Power, p. 6, University of Chicago Press).

And its exactly that 'stuff' - of contracts, clauses and case notes - that Professional English in Use: Law is made up of. Used in conjunction with its sister publication - Cambridge's International Legal English - Professional English in Use is the perfect medium for recycling the legal vocabulary familiar to students preparing for the ILEC exam. It can also be used to supplement classroom work, for one-to-one lessons or as a self-study reference and practice book (there is an answer key at the back). However, as it's rather dense, I'd suggest working through a couple of the units with your students first before encouraging them to use it on their own.

Professional English in Use contains 45 units packed with the language of the law. Key topics include the legal system, company law, contract law and intellectual property as well as exercises on writing legal letters and learning how to explain complex concepts concisely - obviously the sorts of skills lawyers need in their daily working lives.

Each unit is clearly set out on two facing pages. On the left-hand side the target language is presented and explained in its legal context, while the exercises on the right-hand side give students the opportunity to practise using the target language. There is no glossary as such, but technical terms and typical legal collocations are highlighted in bold text and appear at the back of the book together with the pronunciation as shown in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).

All units close with an 'over to you' section which invites students to think about whether they can use an English legal term to describe a concept in their own legal system, or whether they are going to have to 'employ an approximation' (a classic example being the notion of consideration in Anglo-American contract law: it simply does not exist in the civil law system in Switzerland). These sections are also good for promoting class discussions. Where appropriate, the reader is referred to websites which offer opportunities to explore further the new-found terms in authentic contexts.

A quick word of warning: before assigning any of these units to your students for homework, make sure you have done the exercises yourself first. Sometimes they are more challenging than need be (see e.g. unit 16 on ellipsis and substitution in a model legal letter) and risk alienating all but the most dedicated of students.

That said, Professional English in Use: Law is altogether a worthwhile investment for legal English teachers and students alike.

Alison Wiebalck