ISSN 2039-2117 (online) ISSN 2039-9340 (print) Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences MCSER Publishing, Rome-Italy Vol 5 No 8 May 2014 622 A Critique of the Language of Law in Selected Court Cases in Nigeria K. B. C. Ashipu Department of English & Literary Studies, University of Calabar, Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria Kbashipu@yahoo.com, 08036901850 Gloria M. Umukoro Department of Modern Languages and Translation Studies University of Calabar, Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria Doi:10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n8p622 Abstract This paper examines the language of Law, technically known as legalese. Legal matters are normally written in a specific language using registers that are peculiar to law. Since law aims at precision, legalese are used to avoid generalization. The ordinary person who is outside the law profession is not familiar with legalese. The objectives of this study therefore, are to examine the language of law in selected court cases in Nigeria and explicate the semantic implication of legalese that are used to convey such cases to the understanding of the layman. Lawyers use abstract words and this is their professional way of language use. In view of this, the paper shall equally examine these abstract words used by lawyers in the course of speaking and writing legal documents. The paper concludes that this professional way of language use bequeaths on the language of law a peculiarity that is different from other varieties. Keywords: Legalese, Defendant, Plaintiff, Judge, Lawyer 1. Introduction One of the many areas in human activities where language plays a vital role is law. Legal activities have been very dominant in the life of man and lawyers, judges and even defendants employ language as a weapon to articulate their views. This variety of language is technically known as Legalese. Lawyers use legalese in court for the purposes of argument and advancement of the interest of their clients. Thus, studying the forms of legalese used by lawyers to persuade the court is important for a variety of reasons namely; that law is the watchdog of the society and so legalese which constitutes its register should be critically studied to explicate its semantic implication, to unmask it for easy understanding by the layman and also to enrich specifically the subject area of English for Specific Purposes and Stylistics. Against this background therefore, the paper investigates the use of language in selected court cases in Nigeria with a view to discovering how this peculiar variety of language achieves the purposes of precision and persuasion which is the major target of Lawyers. The paper is structured into six parts; the introduction, a description of the language of law, objective of the study, Data presentation and analysis, conclusion and recommendations. 2. Objective The objective of this study is to examine critically the language of law as a special variety of language use. Legal matters are normally stated in a specific style using terms that are peculiar to only law. These terms are known as legalese. The subject of Legalese is hardly studied with vigour even in the course of English for Specific Purposes which studies the varieties of language use in various fields of human endeavour .Yet there is a need for the study of this variety of language because of its peculiar creativity and uniqueness. The present research is specifically devoted to the study of this variety of language in order discover what makes the variety unique and peculiar to only the profession of Law. 3. The Language of Law Legalese is a jargon characteristically used by lawyers for legal writing which may be difficult for laymen to understand. It is a variety of language use that is peculiar to legal practitioners. Legal writing tends to have very unusually long