About the project

Latin is an inseparable element of legal argumentation, and Latinisms are an important phenomenon not only in the context of applying the law but also translating legal texts. The main objectives of the project are:

(1) to extensively investigate the prevalence and characteristics of legal Latin in non-translated and translated legal discourse at the national and supranational level,

(2) to better understand the intra- and intersystemic peculiarities of the usage of legal Latin, and

(3) to examine the microdiachronic change in the reliance on Latinisms by legal practitioners and translators in order to characterize the dynamics of its usage.

The goal is to create a comprehensive glossary of Latinisms and their variants occurring in several major genres of texts representative of both the language of the law (i.e. the language of legal acts) and legal language (i.e. the language of legal professionals). Genres deemed representative of legal discourse vary as to the degree to which they apply legal Latin, with argumentative genres taking advantage of legal Latin to a greater degree than other genres. However, it has not yet been determined whether the same pertains to its usage at the national and supranational levels. Furthermore, it is assumed that the reliance on legal Latin, e.g. especially in multilingual adjudication, is increasing owing to Latin’s legacy as a language well-suited to multilingual environments and thus international legal communication.

Funding: This work is being carried out as part of a research project supported by the National Science Centre, Poland, under grant no. 2023/51/D/HS2/02842.