Introduction

During the past two or three decades, the field of language and law has increasingly become the focus of substantial linguistic interest. For some linguists (sometimes working in interdisciplinary concert with law professors), legal language is of interest in its own right. Also, however, linguists have more and more been engaged to use their professional expertise to assist lawyers in preparing and presenting their clients' cases, and by law-enforcement personnel interested in solving crimes and prosecuting criminals. Taken together, research that includes both the linguistic examination of legal language and the law's use of linguistic insights and expertise is generally termed Linguistics and Law. A term that is frequently applied more narrowly to the use of linguistics experts in the legal setting – especially in criminal proceedings – is Forensic Linguistics.

Sociolinguistics is a sub-discipline that is especially important to scholars working in the general field of linguistics and law. Legal systems in all cultures general hinge crucially upon language, and, as Labov (1988:181–2) notes, the law is essentially a social institution, and sociolinguists thus appear to be especially well qualified to answer legal linguistic questions. As Labov notes, the centrality of empirical data to sociolinguistic research offers more to the law than other linguistic approaches; for example, a