scholarly journals “It’s All Just a Game”: How Victims of Rape Invoke the Game Metaphor to Add Meaning and Create Agency in Relation to Legal Trials

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 257-275
Author(s):  
Solveig Laugerud
Keyword(s):  
Legal Discourse ◽  
Rape Victims ◽  
Legal Professionals ◽  
Rape Case ◽  
Legal Concepts ◽  
Game Metaphor

AbstractMetaphors are common in legal discourse because they reify abstract legal concepts. The game metaphor, sometimes used to characterise legal trials, tends to be associated with legal professionals’ work in court. This metaphor portrays a legal trial as a competitive, hostile and masculine process that excludes victims from participating in the trial. In this article, I analyse interviews with victims of rape who have had their case prosecuted in the courts in Norway. The victims use the game metaphor to characterise both the trial and their participation in it. I investigate how the game metaphor adds meaning to rape victims’ understanding and experience of a legal trial and creates room for agency in relation to the prosecution of their rape case.

scholarly journals BIBLICAL LAW IN GRECO-ROMAN ATTIRE: THE CASE OF LEVIRATE MARRIAGE IN LATE ANTIQUE CHRISTIAN LEGAL TRADITIONS

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 136-164
Author(s):  
Yifat Monnickendam
Keyword(s):  
Legal Discourse ◽  
Sexual Relationships ◽  
Complex Case ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Legal Tradition ◽  
Biblical Law ◽  
Inheritance Law ◽  
Legal Traditions ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Legal Concepts

AbstractWhat happened to biblical law when transferred into late antique Christianity? How can answering this question provide a paradigm that helps us understand the rise and development of late antique Christian legal traditions? In the first centuries of the Common Era, the Christian legal tradition began to evolve in Roman, Greek, rabbinic, and biblical contexts. Focusing on the biblical institution of levirate marriage, this article offers a paradigm that elucidates how Christians might have adopted, adapted, and sometimes rejected their legal heritage; it may illuminate the overall development of Christian legal discourse. Following a short survey of the rabbinic adaptation of biblical levirate marriage and the Roman and Christian rulings regarding this practice, I analyze the Christian exegetical and theological discourse on levirate marriage, focusing on the acceptance or rejection of levirate marriage as a whole and adaptations to the biblical institution. This analysis demonstrates the disparity between the rabbinic discourse, the Christian and Roman rulings, and the theological and exegetical discourse. It shows how Christians remodeled their biblical heritage according to Greek and Roman legal concepts, namely the Roman adoption and the Greek epiklerate, and treated it as part of inheritance law and child-parent relationships, whereas the rabbis used different adaptations and treated it as part of matrimonial law and sexual relationships. This discussion therefore recontextualizes the legal discourse, positioning the Christian approach to levirate marriage as a complex case of legal transplant and adaptation of a legal heritage.

scholarly journals Towards a Conceptualization of Legal English as a Lingua Franca?

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 14
Author(s):  
Patrizia Anesa
Keyword(s):  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
Legal Discourse ◽  
Legal Language ◽  
Lingua Franca ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
Legal Professionals ◽  
Legal Communication ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
National Languages

English is de facto reinforcing its role as the language of international legal communication. Indeed, while different national languages continue to play a crucial role in the definition, the execution, and the application of the law, English is increasingly employed by non-native legal professionals worldwide. Thus, this study focuses on the use of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) in legal settings and aims to offer considerations towards the conceptualization of Legal English as a Lingua Franca (LELF). As English is considered a global asset in legal communication, it is argued that a finer problematization of LELF is imperative. In this respect, the study also discusses whether it is possible to apply the concept of a lingua franca to legal language tout court or whether the distinctive features of legal discourse across systems make the definition of LELF inapplicable from a conceptual perspective. This article also offers a reflection on the main concerns which arise regarding the widespread use of English in legal settings, especially in the light of the specificities of different legal systems, legal cultures and communities of practice. Thus, all stakeholders involved should adopt a more reflexive approach in order to go beyond the unproblematic acceptance of LELF across legal settings and to be more aware of the implications and consequences that its usage entails.

scholarly journals Discontinuity formulation of restitutions in Aceh qanun against the protection of rape victims

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 245
Author(s):  
Syarifah Rahmatillah Aljamalulail
Keyword(s):  
Deterrent Effect ◽  
Rape Victims ◽  
Literature Study ◽  
Normative Approach ◽  
Procedural Law ◽  
Rape Case ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Technical Rules

This study discusses the fulfilment of the rights of rape victims in Aceh in the form of restitution payments. Restitution which is the main punishment in Qanun Aceh No. 6 of 2014 concerning the Jinayat Law, has never been included in the judge's decision in the cases of rape. Basically Qanun Jinayah has shown its side with rape victims by formulating punishments for perpetrators which are certain to have a deterrent effect such as the length of prison sentences and the number of sentences handed down to the perpetrators. However, the problem of hampering the fulfilment of restitution to victims is a new problem in the realm of enforcing the Jinayah Qanun in Aceh. This raises the question of why restitution was never included in the decision of the Sharia Court for the rape case in Aceh. This research is a literature study using a normative approach which is then explained descriptively. The results of this study showed that the restitution was never included in the decision is due to the incompatibility of the restitution formulation mentioned in the Jinayat Law Qanun and later referred to differently in the Jinayat Procedural Law, namely as compensation. The fulfilment of this right to restitution is also hampered due to the absence of a governor's regulation that contains technical rules regarding the mechanism for executing restitution for victims. The impact of this discontinuity in the formulation of restitution makes judges unable to include sanctions for restitution in their decisions.

scholarly journals Ius Constitutionale Commune en América Latina: Observations on Transformative Constitutionalism

AJIL Unbound ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 109 ◽  
pp. 109-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Armin von Bogdandy
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Separation Of Powers ◽  
Legal Discourse ◽  
Case Law ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Legal Scholarship ◽  
Positive Law ◽  
America Latina ◽  
Legal Concepts ◽  
Opening Up

A new approachIus Constitutionale Commune en América Latina (ICCAL) constitutes a new approach to constitutionalism in the region. It has transformative aims and draws its energy from the perception of unacceptable conditions of a systematic nature. Like many legal concepts it refers both to positive law as a well as to the legal discourse connected to it. In terms of positive law, it is above all based upon the American Convention on Human Rights and other inter-American legal instruments, the concordant guarantees of national constitutions, the constitutional clauses opening up the domestic legal order to international law as well as pertinent national and international case law. In terms of legal discourse it is characterized by a disciplinary combination of national and international legal scholarship, a comparative mindset, and a methodological orientation towards principles.The proponents of this approach set a stark accent on rights and the transformation of political and social realities but reject plebiscitary presidentialism and the centralization of power as a transformative strategy. Accordingly, the separation of powers and independent institutions are accorded great weight. ICCAL supports the regionally secured realization of the central promises of national constitutions, the embedding of the national legal orders in a larger context, and the transformation of society through law.

scholarly journals “In Other Words, …”: A Corpus-based Study of Reformulation in Judicial Discourse

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (46) ◽  
pp. 11
Author(s):  
Davide Mazzi
Keyword(s):  
Quantitative Analysis ◽  
Supreme Court ◽  
Language Variation ◽  
Legal Discourse ◽  
Argumentative Discourse ◽  
Legal Professionals ◽  
Comparable Corpora ◽  
Court Of Justice ◽  
Judicial Discourse

The language of the law has been a favourite subject of investigation for both legal professionals and linguists for more than a decade now. Linguists, for instance, have paid increasing attention to the interplay of precise and flexible terms in legal drafting, and language variation across the genres of legal discourse. Among the latter, judgments have been discussed as a case in point by argumentation scholars, although the linguistic components of judicial argumentative discourse have often been overlooked. In the light of this, the aim of this paper is to carry out a corpus-based analysis of the open-ended category of reformulation markers as outstanding discursive items of judicial discourse in two comparable corpora of authentic judgments issued by two different courts of last resort, namely the Court of Justice of the European Communities and Ireland’s Supreme Court. By combining a qualitative with a quantitative analysis, the study shows that reformulation markers tend to activate a variety of discursive configurations across the two courts. Hence, data reveal that reformulation strengthens the quality of both judicial narrative, as it were – as is clear from its deployment in clarifying the normative background and specifying the factual framework of disputes – and at once judicial argument, when judges characterise, refine or grade reported arguments/interpretations or they wish to make their reasoning more solid and convincing.

scholarly journals What we know - and what we don't: Single and multiple perpetrator rape in South Africa

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Jewkes ◽  
Lisa Vetten ◽  
Ruxana Jina ◽  
Nicola Christofides ◽  
Romi Sigsworth ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Case Reports ◽  
The Body ◽  
Rape Victims ◽  
Dna Testing ◽  
Arrest Rate ◽  
Gauteng Province ◽  
Arrest Rates ◽  
Gang Rape ◽  
Rape Case

This article offers an analysis of 1 886 rape dockets opened at 70 police stations in Gauteng Province in 2003. Multiple perpetrator rape (‘gang rape’) constituted 16% of all cases. Most of these incidents started when the victim was outdoors, either alone or accompanied, and occurred in the open or in a public space. In contrast, single perpetrator rape mostly occurs in a home. A key finding was that fewer than 40% of victims of either single or multiple perpetrator rape indicated that they had verbally or physically resisted the attacker. Yet in most cases perpetrators were not armed. Further, an analysis of J88 forms showed many victims had no injuries other than genital or anal injury. Injuries to other parts of the body were only found in 27% of single and 35% of multiple perpetrator rape victims. Although most victims reported to the police within 72 hours of the rape, the arrest rate was low, particularly for multiple perpetrator rapes (39%). The study showed that there are very important differences between single perpetrator and multiple perpetrator rape. It also points to a mismatch between perpetrators’ accounts and police case reports, suggesting differences in under-reporting between these two types of rapes. Improvement of DNA testing and rape case arrests of multiple perpetrator rapes are matters of  urgency, and reasons for differences in low arrest rates should be the next step in the examination of multiple rape cases.

Intersections of race and gender in sexual assault trials

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Ehrlich
Keyword(s):  
Legal System ◽  
White Male ◽  
Rape Victims ◽  
Race And Gender ◽  
Intersectionality Theory ◽  
Language And Gender ◽  
Male Perpetrators ◽  
Rape Trials ◽  
Rape Case ◽  
And Gender

This essay traces the development of intersectionality theory within the field of language and gender in relation to research on the language of rape trials. In early work on the topic, I used Judith Butler’s notion of the ‘rigid regulatory frame’ to understand the cultural intelligibility of certain kinds of rape victims in the legal system and the unintelligibility of others. But the inequities that complainants often experience in rape trials are not merely the result of sexism; rather, it is sexism and racism which together interact to disadvantage complainants and protect white male perpetrators, who occupy a privileged position within these contexts vis-à-vis men of colour. In line with recent work in the field, I end with an analysis of a rape case that demonstrates the necessity of attending to nonhegemonic masculinities and intersectionality.

“MOORS KNOW THE LAW”: SOVEREIGN LEGAL DISCOURSE IN MOORISH SCIENCE RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES AND THE HERMENEUTICS OF SUPERSESSION

2016 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Spencer Dew
Keyword(s):  
Legal Discourse ◽  
Religious Communities ◽  
Historical Narratives ◽  
Legal Authority ◽  
Legal Professionals ◽  
American Citizenship ◽  
Legal Thinking ◽  
The Many ◽  
Moorish Science ◽  
Practical Instruction

AbstractAmong the many individuals and groups espousing affiliation with the Moorish Science Temple of America movement, some continue founding prophet Noble Drew Ali's emphasis on engaging in American citizenship as a religious duty, while others interpret the prophet's scriptures to lend authority to claims of being outside the jurisdiction of American legal authority. Such sovereign Moors, whose actions range from declaration of secession to rejection of drivers or marriage licenses, advance legal discourse rooted in historical narratives, tailor their legal thinking toward practical instruction and efficacious results, and appeal to etymology to further authorize their claims. Such sovereign Moorish legal discourse is best understood, following Catherine Wessinger's work on the Montana Freemen, as “magical,” and understanding the magical role played by legal texts and discourse within these communities can help scholars and legal professionals in their approach to and interactions with sovereign Moors.

Clinical Update: Understanding Causation: An Example Using Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

2007 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 5-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Mark Melhorn
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factors ◽  
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome ◽  
Carpal Tunnel ◽  
Legal Responsibility ◽  
Medical Evidence ◽  
Anatomic Structure ◽  
Legal Professionals ◽  
Compensation Systems ◽  
Tunnel Syndrome ◽  
Four Levels

Abstract Medical evidence is drawn from observation, is multifactorial, and relies on the laws of probability rather than a single cause, but, in law, finding causation between a wrongful act and harm is essential to the attribution of legal responsibility. These different perspectives often result in dissatisfaction for litigants, uncertainty for judges, and friction between health care and legal professionals. Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) provides an example: Popular notions suggest that CTS results from occupational arm or hand use, but medical factors range from congenital or acquired anatomic structure, age, sex, and body mass index, and perhaps also involving hormonal disorders, diabetes, pregnancy, and others. The law separately considers two separate components of causation: cause in fact (a cause-and-effect relationship exists) and proximate or legal cause (two events are so closely related that liability can be attached to the first event). Workers’ compensation systems are a genuine, no-fault form of insurance, and evaluators should be aware of the relevant thresholds and legal definitions for the jurisdiction in which they provide an opinion. The AMA Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment contains a large number of specific references and outlines the methodology to evaluate CTS, including both occupational and nonoccupational risk factors and assigning one of four levels of evidence that supports the conclusion.

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