History of legal language, and legal language in India
LUG-105 English and Legal Language, Unit I: History of legal language, and legal language in India. · LLB · 60 min
How legal English came to be made of three languages - Old English, Law French and Latin - from the Anglo-Saxon codes through the Norman Conquest, the Statute of Pleading 1362 and the Act of 1731, and why maxims, French terms and doublets survive. Then the Indian story: Sanskrit dharmasastra, Persian in the Mughal and Company courts, the switch of 1837, the Charter Act 1833, Macaulay and the codes, the High Courts of 1862, and after 1950 Article 348, the Official Languages Act 1963 and Hindi in four High Courts.
The papers ask the history for 3.5 marks (2022-23, 2023-24) and for 7 marks combined with the uses of legal language in India (2023-24) or the role of English (2025-26).
Objectives
- Trace the three layers of legal English (Anglo-Saxon, Law French, Latin) and name the statutes that restored English.
- Explain why Latin maxims, French terms and doublets survive in modern legal drafting.
- Describe the languages of law in India from the dharmasastra to the codes of the 1860s and 1870s.
- State the constitutional settlement of 1950 (Articles 343 and 348), the Official Languages Act 1963 and the position of Hindi in the High Courts.
- Write a 7-mark answer on the history of legal language and the uses of legal language in India.
Slides
- Why the history matters: three languages in one sentence
- Anglo-Saxon law in Old English
- The Norman Conquest of 1066 and Law French
- Latin: the language of records, writs and maxims
- The return to English: 1362, 1731 and the survivals
- Legal language in ancient and medieval India: Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic
- Company and Crown: 1726 to 1947
- The Constitution of 1950 and the Official Languages Act, 1963
- The present position and the new layer: Hindi, the 2023 codes and translation
- The layered inheritance: a word quiz
- How the examiner asks it
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