Exploring Legal English teaching at the Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb: A comprehensive analysis

Abstract

The paper describes teaching of Legal English at the Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb, the use of digital tools in teaching and some current challenges in the teaching process. Courses in Legal English or German are obligatory for all 1^st and 2^nd students. More than 90% of students take Legal English. The Faculty offers a number of elective courses for the 5^th year students, among which are Advanced Legal English and Comparative Legal Linguistics. Legal English differs from other languages for specific purposes because of its specific characteristics, such as technical vocabulary, polysemy, archaisms, long and complex sentences, borrowings from other languages, passivization, subordination, nominalisation and so on. Legal English courses are designed to upgrade the students’ ability to understand and analyse legal texts written in English in their studies and later in their professional work, as well as to improve their translation skills and language competence. To achieve these goals, a new textbook has been prepared by the members of the Department of Foreign Languages taking into consideration the needs of today’s students of law.