I. Historical Context

Welcome to Replace Latin with English! Last time, we began looking at how events that took place more than a thousand years ago have impacted legal writing in the Twenty-first Century. But, while Norman French has certainly made its mark, Latin—the language of the much earlier Roman conquerors—has also had a long-lasting impact. By way of background, apart from a brief interval in the 1650’s, Latin was the predominant language in England’s common-law courts up until...