Part I provides an introduction to subsequent papers by providing a historical perspective on and contemporary survey of the rapidly developing field of language and law. In a discussion of the intellectual value of research on language in the judicial process, it analyzes the distribution of research efforts across three major categories: spoken language in legal settings, language as a subject of the law, and the written language of the law. Part II, "Analyzing Language in Legal Settings," contains four papers on spoken language in settings that range from criminal and small claims court proceedings to out-of-court negotiations and conversations. Each study examines how the structure of discourse varies according to a particular setting, situation, and participants. In Part III, "Transforming Language in Legal Proceedings," language is studied not just as an instrument in the legal process but as the creative production of two essential yet virtually invisible participants in the American legal system: the court interpreter and the court reporter. Although the studies in Part IV, "Construing Language for Legal Purposes," are divided between focus on the spoken and the written forms of language, they are united in their interest in how the meaning of a specific stretch of language, whether written or spoken, is interpreted by the law. Chapter references and author and subject indexes