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TAMIL NADU NATIONAL LAW SCHOOL, TIRUCHIRAPPALLI

I YEAR I SEMESTER B.A., LL.B. (HONS.) DEGREE COURSE

PAPER III ENGLISH I

HAAC

INTRODUCTION AND COURSE OUTLINE

Welcome to The Tamil Nadu national Law School, Tiruchirappalli and welcome to the
course.

The question why law and language is always going to be an important one. Why,
you ask, should you spend your time in law school learning English? The answer to
that is that the kind of English youll study in law school will equip you to understand
the law better.

Language is central to both the creation and implementation of law. The intersections
between law and language deal not only with how laws and drafted, what form they
take, and how they are applied, but also with how laws attach significance to some
languages over others.

Objectives of the Course:

To explore the significance of language to communication and identity.

To appreciate the language question in the Indian Constitution and the

difference between language as mother tongue, official language, the medium
of educational instruction and the language of official communication.

To learn how to write and communicate effectively.

To understand the difference between language and ideas by learning to express

the ideas of others in your own words.

To appreciate techniques of interpretation used in law; to examine how

significant the context of words is to their meaning, and to understand how
these interpretations can change with time.

Module I: An Uneasy Compromise : Status and Identity of Language in the

Indian Constitution:

This module will examine the Constituent Assembly Debates on the question of
language, along with the text of the Constitution, the Official Languages Act, 1963,
and amendments made to it. In doing so, questions on the importance of English, the
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role of Hindi under the Constitution, and its role vis-a-vis other languages will be
brought out.

In examining how the politics of language played out, we will also look a the major
cases under the Constitutions linguistic provisions and the official Languages Act.

Module II: Learning to Read and Write Effectively:

This module will focus on learning how to write clearly, concisely and formally,
Examples of good and bad writing will be shown in class, and strategies for writing
well will be demonstrated.

This module will attempt to show the difference between legalese and excessive
verbosity on one hand, and the Plain English School. Assignments on writing will be
given, the benefits of correct punctuation brought out, and common grammatical
errors will be demonstrated.

This module in the course shall be taught largely through tutorials and through a
discussion of the writing assignments that will be given.

Module III: the Importance of Writing on Your Own: What Constitutes

Plagiarism and how to avoid it:

Through a discussion of what plagiarism is, this module will bring out why there is a
need to acknowledge the work of other people in the realm of scholarship, How is
such work to referenced? What counts as acceptable borrowing, and what, despite
being cited, will still be considered plagiarism.

In trying to avoid plagiarism, the course will discuss how students can summarize,
paraphrase, and make notes of arguments. Classes will also be taken on how to draft
prcis and make case briefs.

Most of the exercises in this selection will be done through tutorials.

Module IV: Legal Words and Phrases ; Legalese and Plain Language:

This module distinguishes between words and phrases which have functional
importance and phrases which are used to obtain professional suzerainty. Through
bringing out the difference between plain language and imprecise simplification,
students will learn the importance of being concise while at the same time not losing
out on precision and the formality that legal language requires.

1. Legal Maxims

2. General Legal terms

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Module V: Words: Their Meanings and Interpretation :

Do words have meanings absent of context? Is meaning present or extracted through

interpretation? Does Authorial Meaning have precedence over the readers meaning?
Does the meaning of texts evolve or is it frozen in time?

Through a discussion including but not confined to legal cases, these questions will be
debated and discussed. In a sense, this will also be an entry point into the later law
and literature course.