The chapters constituting this volume focus on legal language seen from cross-cultural
perspectives a topic which brings together two areas of research that have burgeoned in recent
years i.e. legal linguistics and intercultural studies reflecting the rapidly changing
multifaceted world in which legal institutions and cultural national identities interact.
Within the broad thematic leitmotif of this volume it has been possible to identify two major
strands: legal discourse across languages on the one hand and legal discourse across cultures
on the other. Of course labels of this kind are adopted partly as a matter of convenience and
it could be argued that any paper dealing with legal discourse across languages inevitably has
to do with legal discourse across cultures. But a closer inspection of the papers comprising
each of these two strands reveals that there is a coherent logic behind the choice of labels.
All seven chapters in the first section are concerned with legal topics where more than one
language is at stake whereas all seven chapters in the second section are concerned with legal
topics where cultural differences are brought to the fore.
