Law

(see also English for Lawyers)

One of the problems for the language of law is that much of law is specific to a particular jurisdiction e.g. a country or territory. Legal concepts may exist in one jurisdiction and not in another, or might have different meanings in different jurisdictions. So, a good starting point is to make effective use of dictionaries.

Law Dictionaries
An encyclopaedic-type resource, if you are a university student and your university subscribes, is the Oxford Reference There you can search within the law category and read entries on concepts in some quite specialist legal dictionaries.

A good free resource that is particularly good for English and North American law is the free dictionary as it has a legal category.

Latin is commonly used in jurisdictions of English language countries. Some glossaries can be found below:

For a handy list of common legal terms in the UK, try plainenglish.co.uk
 * English law via University of Kent
 * Scottish law https://www.genuki.org.uk/big/sct/glossary
 * English courts and tribunals legal terms

Law Journals and Magazines
There are many legal journals although you will find that the majority need to be accessed through institutional accounts as they are available through subscription databases. Here you will find a list of English language jurisdictions' law journals together with a very valuable list of abbreviations used for those journals.You can access many free legal resources via The Institute of Advanced Legal Studies in England - it has a portal to legal information https://ials.sas.ac.uk/digital/ials-digital-resources/eagle-i-internet-portal-law

You can find a methodical tutorial on carrying out legal research here http://www.vtstutorials.co.uk/tutorial/law and also here via University of Bristol.

Understanding the law
When learning about an academic subject in a foreign language, it can be helpful to read material at an introductory/beginner level. This is especially true of law where different countries have different legal systems, which might also mean different legal concepts; not all words in law can translate directly to different languages. As an example, the role of judges in a common law system and a civil law system are very different. For English law, it is sometimes worth looking at A level/AS level law materials aimed at high school children.

Legal research: what are the sources of law and where do you find them? Some sites are listed below

To get a sense of the quality of legal journals, Washington and Lee School of Law in the US provides this resource https://lawlib.academic.wlu.edu/2019/09/03/new-wl-law-journal-rankings-now-online/
 * LLRX
 * Oxford University Press - book titles and extra resources to learn more (some free to access, some not)
 * Scottish Law Reports - links to Scottish legal sources and sources about Scots law
 * Venables - contains a lot of link to legal sources and sources about law

Academic law skills, especially writing
A reasonable starting point to introduce you to law essays https://latrobe.libguides.com/writing/law

University of the West of England (UWE) provides a tutorial to introduce you to researching skills for law in England.

Language style can be difficult to get right in academic legal English, finding a balance between complexity and "plain language" i.e. language that is clear and comprehensible. Here is a guide for Scottish law drafters that might provide some useful tips. https://www.gov.scot/publications/drafting-matters/

Citations (your referencing to sources) most often follow the OSCOLA style in UK universities.