Certificate in Language and Law

Coming Fall 2025

This Language and Law Certificate is open to all majors.

Description

(15 Hours)

The law is a profession of words, grammar, and linguistic acts. Statutes, jury instructions, and contracts are conveyed through language, as are crimes like threats, bribes, and perjury. Likewise, forensic linguistic evidence can play an important role in civil and criminal cases. The Language and Law certificate equips students to understand the nature of everyday communication, the more specialized linguistic acts found in legal contexts, and the ways in which linguistic evidence can be used in prosecution and defense. This certificate is suited for students planning careers in law enforcement and within the legal system, such as paralegals, translators, or interpreters, as well as attending law school or graduate studies in a wide variety of related fields.

Required Courses [9 hours]

• LING 2080 Language of Courts and Crime
• LING 3020 Forensic Linguistics
• LING 3060 Principles of Language Study

Choose Two Elective Courses: [6 hours]

• LING 2070 Language and Discrimination
• LING 3040 Politics of Language
• LING 3080 Language and Society
• LING 3090 Discourse Analysis, Talking and Telling
• LING 4010 Language Variation
• LING 4070 History of the English Language
• LING 4090 Semantics and Pragmatics
• LING 4135 Programming for Linguistics
• LING 4140 Introduction to Computational Linguistics
• LING 4410 World Englishes