ABSTRACT
Law has, since ancient times, been recognized as an inherently rhetorical activity. It requires skills in both written and spoken language, even though historically, disputes were often settled “first by feud, and later by combat or ordeal,” to be replaced by “words instead of weapons” even later (James, 1971, p. 84). The language of the law was of interest to both philosophers of language and lawyers themselves, who focused for the most part on syntax and word meanings in written documents, recognizing that “words are of central importance for the lawyer because they are, in a very particular way, the tools of his trade” (G. L. Williams, 1945a, p. 71). At the same time, lawyers recognized the need for a good command of the spoken language, “so as to put [the] client’s case clearly and strongly before the judge” (Denning, 1955, p. 52), as well as to educate the general public about the law and how to use it (e.g., Dahl, 1987; Tsanga, 1990).
