Law_latin

Law Latin

Law Latin

Form of Latin used in legal contexts

Law Latin, sometimes written L.L. or L. Lat.,[1] and sometimes derisively referred to as Dog Latin,[2] is a form of Latin used in legal contexts. While some of the vocabulary does come from Latin, many of the words and much of the vocabulary stem from English.[1] Law Latin may also be seen as consisting of a mixture of English, French and Latin words superimposed over an English syntax.[3]

Law Latin was the language in which the legal opinions of English courts were recorded at least until the reign of George II. Under his reign, the Proceedings in Courts of Justice Act 1730 (effective from 1733), mandated that all records of legal proceedings in England were to be made in English rather than Latin. Law Latin was also used as the language of writs, royal charters, letters patent and many other legal instruments. As late as 1867, Law Latin was still in use in England and Scotland for some legal instruments.[1]

See also

References

  1. [1]
    Burrill, Alexander M. (1867). A Law Dictionary and Glossary. Vol. 2 (2d ed.). New York: Baker, Voorhis & Co. pp. 135–136 – via HeinOnline.
  2. [2]
    Garner, Bryan A. (1990). A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-1950-7769-8.
  3. [3]
    Garner, Bryan A., ed. (2009). Black's Law Dictionary (9th ed.). ISBN 978-0-314-19949-2.
Stub icon

This law-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Law_latin, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.