ESP: English for Law

Course: Time & place: Instructor: Office hours: Description: ANBE25004BA, Spring 2009 Tuesday 14:00-15:40; GCS Bldg., Room 204 Zoltn Simon (zsimon@dragon.unideb.hu) Main Bldg., Room 118 (: 512-900 / 22069) Tue 13:00-14:00 in GCS Bldg. 202, Wed 11:00-12:00 in Room 118 Since English is increasingly the lingua franca of business communication and because law often has interfaces with the corporate world, an important part of Business English Studies is familiarity with certain aspects of legal English. The aim of this course is to provide students with a basic-level competence in understanding legal concepts in English (especially as they relate to the business world) and to provide an introduction to the terminology of this huge and often intimidating field. In addition to vocabulary, which must be at the core of any ESP course, attention is also given to the special syntax of this field, as well as to translation skills (especially English to Hungarian). Rather than pretending to teach students all there is to know about law in the Anglo-American world and the language of the law in English, the course sets out to give them some useful tools and resources in dealing with this special field. A diversity of English-language legal documents, mostly authentic texts written by English- speaking lawyers, mainly native speakers, but due to the nature of this field, also by non-native speakers, which provides an opportunity for identifying common, returning mistakes or differences from standard use. Names and other recognizable information in such documents are deleted or altered. A number of texts are also adopted from the textbooks listed below. In addition, magazine articles on current issues, informative brochures and materials, Internet resources are also introduced.

Texts:

Bibliography: Bart Istvn, Klaudy Kinga. EU fordtiskola: Eurpai unis szvegek fordtsa angolrl magyarra. Budapest: Corvina, 2003. ---. Angol fordtiskola. Budapest: Corvina, 1996. Brookes, M, and D. Homer. English for Law. Budapest: Kerszv, 1997. Dek Andrs. An English Reader for Students of Law. Budapest: ELTE JK, 1991. Dme Eva. English for European Studies: A Coursebook for Law Students. Pcs: JPTE, 1999. Erdei Andrs, et al. Magyar-angol-magyar jogi szaksztr. Budapest: KJK-Kerszv, 2003. Heidinger, Franz J., et al. Bevezets az Eurpai Uni jogba s nyelvezetbe: Angol-magyar nyelven. Budapest. HVG-ORAC, 2000. ---. Angol-amerikai jogi nyelv: Budapest: HVG-ORAC, 1994. Psztor Krisztina. English for law students. Miskolc: Miskolc University, 1997. Riley, Alison. English for Law. London: Macmillan, 1991. Smith, Tricia. Business Law. Harlow: Pearson, 2000.

Topics in a week-by-week breakdown: Week 1: Introduction and orientation Week 2: Some special features of legalese; the idiosyncrasies of legal English Week 3: The law of business organizations (corporate law); types of business organizations; the translatability of company names/forms and other legal notions Week 4: Corporate documents (Memoranda of Association, Articles, Certificates of Incorporation, by-laws, charters, etc.) Week 5: Translating corporate documents Week 6: The vocabulary of courts; criminal vs. civil law (text if focus: There are no excuses) Week 7: The law of the European Union; sources of primary law in the EU; regulations, decisions, opinions, directives, etc.; useful resources in Community law; Regulation 1 of the Council of the European Communities (The Language Charter of the EC) Week 8: The law of contracts; types of contracts; some basic notions, including consideration, indemnification, confidentiality, etc. Week 9: Spring break Week 10: The law of contracts; typical parts of Anglo-American contracts; translating contracts (text in focus: distribution agreement) Week 11: Revision and consolidation, translation practice Week 12: In-class test (including translation with dictionary) Week 13: Other fields of law (copyright, tax law, insurance law, etc.) as requested Week 14: Electronic resources and computer-aided translation in the field of law Week 15: The lighter side of law; conclusions and evaluation