The electronic newsletter on Language and Law, LANGUAGE IN THE JUDICIAL PROCESS, debuts with this issue. The intention of the editors is to maintain, on a website, current information of interest to all scholars interested in law and language as well as to legal practitioners.
Initially, issues will list bibliographies and other tools, direct readers to relevant organizations, provide program information where appropriate, and list current bibliography in language & law. Later issues will be expanded to cite legal cases in which linguistic issues are important, and also to include abstracts of articles and summaries of relevant cases. etc. One goal of LJP is to continue the fine tradition begun by Judith N. Levi, whose bibliographical work on language and law over more than a decade culminated in the publication of her 1994 bibliography, Language and Law: A Bibliographic Guide to Social Science Research in the U.S.A. (ordering information is available).
For the title of the newsletter, we are indebted to both Judith N. Levi and Anne Graffam Walker; their pioneering work in organizing and coordinating both the 1985 Georgetown University conference, “Language in the Judicial Process,” and the 1990 volume of the same name, constituted a substantial contribution to the developing field of language and law. We use the name Language in the Judicial Process with their permission.
Bethany K. Dumas, Editor