- published: 08 May 2013
- views: 13066
Legal writing is a type of technical writing used by lawyers, judges, legislators, and others in law to express legal analysis and legal rights and duties. Legal writing in practice is used to advocate for or to express the resolution of a client's legal matter.
Legal writing places heavy reliance on authority. In most legal writing, the writer must back up assertions and statements with citations to authority. This is accomplished by a unique and complicated citation system, unlike that used in any other genre of writing. The standard methods for American legal citation are defined by two competing rule books: the ALWD Citation Manual: A Professional System of Citation and The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation. Different methods may be used in other countries.
Legal writing values precedent, as distinct from authority. Precedent means the way things have been done before. For example, a lawyer who must prepare a contract and who has prepared a similar contract before will often re-use, with limited changes, the old contract for the new occasion. Or a lawyer who has filed a successful motion to dismiss a lawsuit may use the same or a very similar form of motion again in another case, and so on. Many lawyers use and re-use written documents in this way and call these re-usable documents templates or, less commonly, forms.
Hong Kong (香港; "Fragrant Harbour"), officially Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, is an autonomous territory on the southern coast of China at the Pearl River Estuary and the South China Sea. Hong Kong is known for its skyline and deep natural harbour. It has a land area of 1104 km2 and shares its northern border with Guangdong Province of Mainland China. With around 7.2 million inhabitants of various nationalities, Hong Kong is one of the world's most densely populated metropolises.
After the First Opium War (1839–42), Hong Kong became a British colony with the perpetual cession of Hong Kong Island, followed by Kowloon Peninsula in 1860 and a 99-year lease of the New Territories from 1898. Hong Kong remained under British control for about a century until the Second World War, when Japan occupied the colony from December 1941 to August 1945. After the Surrender of Japan, the British resumed control. In the 1980s, negotiations between the United Kingdom and the China resulted in the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration, which provided for the transfer of sovereignty of Hong Kong on 30 June 1997. The territory became a special administrative region of China with a high degree of autonomy on 1 July 1997 under the principle of one country, two systems. Disputes over the perceived misapplication of this principle have contributed to popular protests, including the 2014 Umbrella Revolution.
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Learn how to write plain English by using the active voice. In this series of videos I explain how you can improve your writing skills by looking at different ways you can self-edit your work and communicate a clearer message. For more information about the subject-verb-object order please see: • https://www.tesol-direct.com/tesol-resources/english-grammar-guide/subjects-and-objects/ • http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/objects.htm • http://grammar.about.com/od/basicsentencegrammar/a/sentenceunit.htm Please visit my: • webpage: https://writtenlegalenglish.pl • facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/writtenlegalenglish/ • youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoLukb99TIp5K8syJU-AzdQ and • Connect with me on Linkedin: https://pl.linkedin.com/in/simonporter
A sample segment from A Crash Course in Legal Writing presented by Bryan A. Garner, President of LawProse, Inc. For the complete seminar, see www.lawprose.org, Mr. Garner is Editor in Chief, Black's Law Dictionary, and has written more than 20 books relating to law and language.
The material Prof. James C. Raymond teaches is appropriate to both judges and lawyers. When he teaches only lawyers, he changes the title to "Giving Judges What They Crave". Video 1: What Makes Legal Writing Good Good legal writing is an art, not a science. "Learning the art of good legal writing is the same as learning to play golf. Video clips and sitting in a chair reading a book only gets you so far in your game." Prof. Raymond says. "You must get on the links, swing the club, and have a good third party who can see things in your game that you cannot see for yourself. A good golf instructor guides you to ensure that you arrive as quickly as possible to the top of your game. In this way, good legal writing is exactly like golf."
This Chapter discusses Legal Writing and Grammar.
CORSO IN LEGAL ENGLISH (Altalex Formazione) - Accreditato 8 ore CNF - Il corso si articolerà in otto units con difficoltà crescente. Le prime tre ore saranno di livello basic, le successive tre ore saranno di livello intermedio, le ultime due di livello avanzato. Link: http://www.altalex.com/index.php?idnot=65326
An interview with Mr John Budge featuring his advice on legal writing and what he looks for in the legal writing that he reads as a legal professional. Produced by legal English in Hong Kong, with support from the Hong Kong University Grants Committee. More videos at http://legalenglish.hk.
A fun look at some of the immediate benefits of learning legal writing skills.
The Legal-Writing Skills Test. See this video at http://lawprose.org/. A lawyer’s skills can be assessed—and they should be from time to time. Otherwise, there’s little use in cultivating them, and you’ll never know to what degree you’ve succeeded—or failed. This straightforward test will evaluate your writing skills and highlight where improvements can be made. As with his other testing programs, Mr. Garner crafts his test in such a way that there is a definitive correct answer to each question and uses the hour-long session to explain the correct answers. Many attorneys have found these testing sessions so helpful that they have gone back for on-demand versions of earlier sessions they’ve missed. This test will aid professional writers, such as attorneys, to evaluate and cultivate thei...
An interview with Professor Christopher Gane about features of good legal writing and what he looks for in the legal arguments he reads as a professor. Includes advice to law students. Produced by legal English in Hong Kong, with support from the Hong Kong University Grants Committee. More videos at http://legalenglish.hk.
Helpful tips from CEB blog manager Julie Brook. Learn the secret to better legal writing and get specific examples on how you can improve your next brief.
Learn how to write plain English by using the active voice. In this series of videos I explain how you can improve your writing skills by looking at different ways you can self-edit your work and communicate a clearer message. For more information about the subject-verb-object order please see: • https://www.tesol-direct.com/tesol-resources/english-grammar-guide/subjects-and-objects/ • http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/objects.htm • http://grammar.about.com/od/basicsentencegrammar/a/sentenceunit.htm Please visit my: • webpage: https://writtenlegalenglish.pl • facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/writtenlegalenglish/ • youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoLukb99TIp5K8syJU-AzdQ and • Connect with me on Linkedin: https://pl.linkedin.com/in/simonporter
A sample segment from A Crash Course in Legal Writing presented by Bryan A. Garner, President of LawProse, Inc. For the complete seminar, see www.lawprose.org, Mr. Garner is Editor in Chief, Black's Law Dictionary, and has written more than 20 books relating to law and language.
The material Prof. James C. Raymond teaches is appropriate to both judges and lawyers. When he teaches only lawyers, he changes the title to "Giving Judges What They Crave". Video 1: What Makes Legal Writing Good Good legal writing is an art, not a science. "Learning the art of good legal writing is the same as learning to play golf. Video clips and sitting in a chair reading a book only gets you so far in your game." Prof. Raymond says. "You must get on the links, swing the club, and have a good third party who can see things in your game that you cannot see for yourself. A good golf instructor guides you to ensure that you arrive as quickly as possible to the top of your game. In this way, good legal writing is exactly like golf."
This Chapter discusses Legal Writing and Grammar.
CORSO IN LEGAL ENGLISH (Altalex Formazione) - Accreditato 8 ore CNF - Il corso si articolerà in otto units con difficoltà crescente. Le prime tre ore saranno di livello basic, le successive tre ore saranno di livello intermedio, le ultime due di livello avanzato. Link: http://www.altalex.com/index.php?idnot=65326
An interview with Mr John Budge featuring his advice on legal writing and what he looks for in the legal writing that he reads as a legal professional. Produced by legal English in Hong Kong, with support from the Hong Kong University Grants Committee. More videos at http://legalenglish.hk.
A fun look at some of the immediate benefits of learning legal writing skills.
The Legal-Writing Skills Test. See this video at http://lawprose.org/. A lawyer’s skills can be assessed—and they should be from time to time. Otherwise, there’s little use in cultivating them, and you’ll never know to what degree you’ve succeeded—or failed. This straightforward test will evaluate your writing skills and highlight where improvements can be made. As with his other testing programs, Mr. Garner crafts his test in such a way that there is a definitive correct answer to each question and uses the hour-long session to explain the correct answers. Many attorneys have found these testing sessions so helpful that they have gone back for on-demand versions of earlier sessions they’ve missed. This test will aid professional writers, such as attorneys, to evaluate and cultivate thei...
An interview with Professor Christopher Gane about features of good legal writing and what he looks for in the legal arguments he reads as a professor. Includes advice to law students. Produced by legal English in Hong Kong, with support from the Hong Kong University Grants Committee. More videos at http://legalenglish.hk.
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