Overview
- Analyses how the language of the law has changed over time
- Explains how changes to the language have empowered judges to rule against governments
- Incorporates findings from a century of changes to the law
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About this book
This book looks at how the language of the law has changed over time, and how this has empowered judges. In particular it looks at how this has empowered judges to rule against governments.
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Keywords
Table of contents (10 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Language in Contemporary Politics
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Front Matter
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Quantitative History
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Front Matter
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Qualitative History
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Reviews
“This elegantly written monograph argues persuasively that a central cause for the decades-long expansion of judicial power lies not so much in the ambition of judges as in changes of the law itself: As the specificity of laws has declined, so the power of the courts has expanded. Matthew Williams’ masterful analysis, which straddles history, law and political science, causes us to rethink key theories of the judicialization of politics. His work is a tour de force that will be appreciated not only for its combination of computational text analysis with nuanced process tracing histories of judicial power, but also for its expansive ambition, covering seven decades and five jurisdictions.” (Petra Schleiter, Professor of Comparative Politics, University of Oxford, United Kingdom)
“We live in an age of data and data analytics. Analysing huge swathes of legislative text across time and jurisdictions, Matthew Williams has revealed a series of fascinating changes in language use. He clearly demonstrates that indeterminacy in the language of legislation affords considerable scope for judges and those exercising judicial determinations to exercise wide powers of interpretation. This clearly written book with its compelling narrative is an important contribution to our understanding of law and policy in the 21st century.” (Sir Nigel Shadbolt, Professor of Computer Science, University of Oxford, United Kingdom).
“We live in an age of data and data analytics. Analysing huge swathes of legislative text across time and jurisdictions, Matthew Williams has revealed a series of fascinating changes in language use. He clearly demonstrates that indeterminacy in the language of legislation affords considerable scope for judges and those exercising judicial determinations to exercise wide powers of interpretation. This clearly written book with its compelling narrative is an important contribution to our understanding of law and policy in the 21st century.” (Sir Nigel Shadbolt, Professor of Computer Science, University of Oxford, United Kingdom).
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Matthew Williams is Tutor and Fellow of Jesus College, University of Oxford, UK. He lectures on British and comparative politics. His research analyses the language of politics, how the language of legislation has changed over the past century, and the effects of these changes on litigation strategies and public administration.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Judges and the Language of Law
Book Subtitle: Why Governments Across the World Have Increasingly Lost in Court
Authors: Matthew Williams
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-91495-0
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Political Science and International Studies, Political Science and International Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-91494-3Published: 17 January 2022
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-91497-4Published: 18 January 2023
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-91495-0Published: 17 January 2022
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XX, 408
Number of Illustrations: 46 b/w illustrations
Topics: Public Policy, Governance and Government