Loquitur Blog
Notes on legal and language questions arising from the ERA / Loquitur Legal English Online Course (021L02), 22 to 26 March 2021
My thanks go to Jaroslav Opravil and Oliver Steuernagel at ERA for their excellent work and of course to the participants, whose lively contribution was much appreciated, and whose questions I address in the following notes. Please feel free to contact me if you have...
Magna Carta and all that.
" The law of this great England! Magnus Carter and all that! " – Arthur Daley. History Magna Carta (‘the Great Charter’) was the first fundamental legal document in Britain confirming or granting individual rights. It began life as a programme of reform drawn...
Cease and desist, Pearl Jam!
The BBC reported on Monday 18th January that the American rock band Pearl Jam had sent a ’cease and desist’ letter to the British tribute act Pearl Jamm, requiring the latter to destroy merchandise and hand over web domains and email addresses. Tribute bands often...
Removing a President
Following the invasion of the Capitol by Trump supporters on 7 January 2021, and the President’s apparent encouragement of, and failure to condemn, the action, there have been calls for him to be: removed from office under the twenty-fifth Amendment to the U.S....
The Legality of Compulsory Vaccination
Can governments require people to get vaccinated? There are now vaccinations available against COVID. However, a large number of people – particularly in the West – have said that they refuse to get vaccinated. There are various reasons given for this refusal,...
Post-Class Notes from the ERA/Loquitur Legal English Online Course, 2020
This week’s blog consists of notes on legal and legal language questions which came up during the ERA / Loquitur Legal English Online Course which ran from 30 November to 2 December 2020. What do suspect, charge, accused and prosecute mean? When the police believe...
Johnny Depp at the Royal Courts of Justice in London
On 2 November 2020, Johnny Depp lost his defamation action against News Group Newspapers, the publishers of The Sun, which had called him a ‘wife-beater’ in a 2018 article. News Group was able to show that it’s claim that Depp had assaulted his former wife Amber Heard...
Welcome to our Blog
We’ve been teaching legal English for 20 years, over which time the law has changed and so has the language of the law. The Loquitur blog will keep track of legal developments in the UK and elsewhere and ask questions and make comments about the significance of...