ABSTRACT
The ongoing internationalisation of English provides a useful and interesting insight into the ways in which linguistic and legal elements interact in the construction of discourse. Such a construction is characterised by complex interaction that combines, opposes and often merges elements of globalisation and localisations. It contains evidence of hybrid forms of discourse which are highly representative of sociocultural identities (see Robertson 1992; Wright 2000). Legal discourse is rooted in local communities from which it emerges but is at the same time increasingly subject to international pressures and conventions. As a result, it has become a fertile ground for exploring and analysing intercultural variations at both the textual level and at the level of the interpretative schemata that shape the semantic-pragmatic traits of the professional community they belong to (Bhatia, Candlin and Gotti 2003). Contemporary legal systems are subject to regional and global forces which impact on legal norms and legal texts (Potter 2001; de Sousa Santos 2002). This process is most evident in domains involving globalisation processes as they have relevant consequences on the discourse produced by both native and non-native practitioners working in intercultural and cross-cultural settings (Levi and Walker 1990; Frederickson 1996; Salmi-Tolonen 2004, 1187-1188).
