Peter Tiersma was the Hon. William Matthew Bryne Professor of Law at Loyola Law School of Los Angeles from 2009 until his death in 2014. He had a Ph.D. in linguistics from the University of California, San Diego, and a J.D. degree from the University of California, Berkeley. His books include Legal Language (1999) and Parchment, Paper, Pixels: Law and the Technologies of Communication (2010).

Lawrence Solan is the Don Forchelli Professor of Law and the Director of the Center for the Study of Law, Language and Cognition at Brooklyn Law School. He is on the editorial board of The International Journal of Speech, Language and the Law and the author of Language and Judges (1993).

This book provides a state-of-the-art account of past and current research in the interface between linguistics and law. It outlines the range of legal areas in which linguistics plays an increasing role and describes the tools and approaches used by linguists and lawyers in this vibrant new field.

This book provides a state-of-the-art account of past and current research in the interface between linguistics and law. It outlines the range of legal areas in which linguistics plays an increasing role and describes the tools and approaches used by linguists and lawyers in this vibrant new field. Through a combination of overview chapters, case studies, and theoretical descriptions, the volume addresses areas such as the history and structure of legal languages, its meaning and interpretation, multilingualism and language rights, courtroom discourse, forensic identification, intellectual property and linguistics, and legal translation and interpretation.

Encyclopedic in scope, the handbook includes chapters written by experts from every continent who are familiar with linguistic issues that arise in diverse legal systems, including both civil and common law jurisdictions, mixed systems like that of China, and the emerging law of the European Union.