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    The Resurgence of English

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    Pranay Bhardwaj
    The document discusses the resurgence of English and decline of Latin and Law French in legal proceedings in England. It describes how English replaced the other languages over several centuries, through acts of Parliament requiring English be used. The transition began in the 14th century but was a gradual process, with Latin and French terms still used. The increased use of writing and printing helped solidify the dominance of English in legal language by the 19th century.

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    The Resurgence of English

    Uploaded by

    Pranay Bhardwaj
    354 views12 pages
    The document discusses the resurgence of English and decline of Latin and Law French in legal proceedings in England. It describes how English replaced the other languages over several centuries, through acts of Parliament requiring English be used. The transition began in the 14th century but was a gradual process, with Latin and French terms still used. The increased use of writing and printing helped solidify the dominance of English in legal language by the 19th century.

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    The document discusses the resurgence of English and decline of Latin and Law French in legal proceedings in England. It describes how English replaced the other languages over several centuries, through acts of Parliament requiring English be used. The transition began in the 14th century but was a gradual process, with Latin and French terms still used. The increased use of writing and printing helped solidify the dominance of English in legal language by the 19th century.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    354 views12 pages

    The Resurgence of English

    Uploaded by

    Pranay Bhardwaj
    The document discusses the resurgence of English and decline of Latin and Law French in legal proceedings in England. It describes how English replaced the other languages over several centuries, through acts of Parliament requiring English be used. The transition began in the 14th century but was a gradual process, with Latin and French terms still used. The increased use of writing and printing helped solidify the dominance of English in legal language by the 19th century.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    THE RESURGENCE OF

    ENGLISH

    The Resurgence of English led to the


    demise of Latin and Law French
    THREE LANGUAGES

     The legal profession’s use of three different


    languages makes the Middle Ages an
    interesting period linguistically, but it did not
    always promote the fair and efficient
    administration of justice.
    EVENTS THAT LED TO THE
    RESURGENCE OF ENGLISH
     1362- Parliament tried to legislate the greater
    use of English in pleading, to little avail.
    Complaints about the situation continued to
    mount.
     1549- Thomas Cranmer- 1st Protestant of
    Archbishop of Canterbury, recounted that “ I
    have heard suitors murmur at the bar because
    their attornies pleaded their cause in the French
    tongue which they understood not”.
     But the “hiddenness” of the law – caused in
    large part by use of a foreign language – forced
    people of the time to “ have recourse to the
    shrine of the lawyer.”
    RESTORATION OF ENGLISH
     Parliament finally took action during the
    Commonwealth, when the Puritans assumed
    power and beheaded the king.
     The Puritans seem to have had a zest not just
    for plain living, but for plain language as well.
     They toyed with the idea of abolishing the
    common law, including its courts and
    practitioners, an replacing it with a pocket-
    sized code in ordinary English.
     1650- Parliament passed a law that required all
    case reports and books of law to be “in the English
    Tongue only”.
     It is directed that earlier reports of judicial
    decisions and other law books be translated into
    English
     1660- After the monarchy had been restored, the
    “pretended act” requiring English was repealed
    and the old state of affairs returned: many of the
    case reports were again in Law French , and
    courts records in Latin
     Even the courts, long bastions of French and
    Latin, had largely switched to English
     1704- law reports of all the courts were in
    English
     1731- Parliament permanently ended the use of
    Latin and French in legal proceedings
     During the rest of the 19th century, Latin and
    Law French continued their slow decline
    CONTINUANCE OF ORIGINAL TERMS

    Unfortunately, it turned out to be


    difficult to translate many Law French and
    Latin terms into English. Two years later,
    another statute provided that the traditional
    names of writs and technical words could
    continue to be in the original language
    THE INCREASING IMPORTANCE OF
    WRITING AND PRINTING
     Throughout the history of English law, legal
    language has been spoken
     The impact of writing was compounded by the
    invention of printing, which was introduced to
    England in the 1470s
    HISTORY OF WRITTEN LEGAL
    PROCEEDINGS
     From 5th century- the Norman conquest-
    transfers of land and wills were customarily
    made orally, usually with witnesses present,
    and often accompanied by a symbolic handing
    over a clod of dirt
     Clergyman began to make written records of
    property aids to remembering
     W ritten records- evidentiary of the oral
    ceremony rather than operative or dispositive
    legal documents in the modern sense
     Reporting judicial proceedings
     Mid -15th century – printed abridgements
     Beginning of 1600- publication of law books
    grew up rapidly
     By 1800- printed literature on English law
    included over fifteen hundred distinct titles
    WHY WRITTEN LAW ?
     Once a law is fixed in written form, and especially
    if it is published, it is published, it is endowed with
    a permanence that it would not have – or would
    have to a far less extent – if it were oral
     Modern society could not exist without complex
    written records
     Written law provides important safeguards against
    arbitrary exercises of power by the government
     Writing has encouraged the conservative linguistic
    practices of the legal profession and its fixation on
    words

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