Legal English for Turkish lawyers: what it is and how to learn it online

What is legal English?

Legal English is the variety of English that lawyers use to read and write contracts, judgments, legislation and professional correspondence. It shares its grammar with everyday English, but its vocabulary, sentence structure and tone make it a specialist field of its own.

Three things set it apart. The first is terminology: in everyday English consideration means careful thought, while in contract law it is what each party gives in exchange for the other party's promise. The second is fixed patterns: words and phrases such as shall, notwithstanding and subject to do a precise and predictable job in a contract. The third is the legal system behind the words. Most legal English is written in the common law tradition, which has institutions with no direct equivalent in Turkish law; the trust and estoppel are the most familiar examples.

That is why legal English is more than a vocabulary list. You need to know which legal system a term belongs to, what it corresponds to in Turkish law and in which context it is used. The party who brings a civil claim is a claimant in England and Wales but a plaintiff in the United States; in Turkish, both are simply davacı.

Why Turkish lawyers need legal English

Turkish law belongs to the civil law family: its main codes follow continental European models, and legal education is built around statutes and doctrine. International commercial practice, by contrast, is largely written in English and often governed by English law or the law of a US state. A Turkish lawyer on a cross-border matter therefore works in two languages and two legal traditions at once:

• reviewing a contract drafted in English for a Turkish client, often with an English governing law clause;
• corresponding with foreign clients, counterparties and co-counsel by email;
• taking part in international arbitration, where submissions, witness statements and hearings are often in English;
• advising foreign investors on Turkish law and explaining Turkish legal concepts in English;
• reading foreign judgments, legislation and academic writing for research or a postgraduate degree.

The fourth point is easy to overlook: explaining a Turkish concept to a foreign client in clear English is as much a part of legal English as understanding an English contract.

The main areas of legal English

Legal English is a set of connected areas. Which one deserves most of your time depends on where English appears in your own work.

• Contract language: definitions, obligation patterns and standard clauses such as governing law, force majeure and severability.
• Litigation and procedure: naming the parties, procedural terms such as injunction and appeal, and the language of pleadings and hearings.
• Company law: terms such as shareholder, merger and due diligence, and the documents of board and general meetings.
• Dispute resolution: arbitration, mediation and settlement, arbitration clauses and the language of awards.
• Legal correspondence: emails, letters of advice and formal letters to clients and to the other side.

Common pitfalls for Turkish speakers

Some mistakes come up again and again when lawyers move between Turkish and English. Most of them are not grammar mistakes; they come from the gap between two legal systems.

• Reading shall as a future tense. In a contract, shall creates an obligation. It is often translated with the Turkish future tense (-ecektir), but the present tense or a phrase such as yükümlüdür shows the obligation more clearly.
• Damage and damages. Damage in the singular is harm or loss; damages in the plural is the money a court awards as compensation.
• One Turkish word for jurisdiction. Jurisdiction covers ground that Turkish procedural law divides between görev and yetki, so the right Turkish word depends on the context.
• Translating avukat. A Turkish avukat may be a lawyer, an attorney, a solicitor or a barrister in English, depending on the country and the work. In England a solicitor works directly with clients, while a barrister mainly appears in court and gives specialist advice.
• One English word for karar. A court gives a judgment, an arbitral tribunal makes an award and a public authority takes a decision; using one word for all three reads as careless.

How to learn legal English online

Legal English calls for a different method from general English classes. These steps work whether you study on your own or follow a legal English course online; practising lawyers will find them turned into an eight-week study plan in our legal English for lawyers guide.

1. Learn terms in context. Meet each term in a contract clause or a sentence from a judgment rather than in a word list. Related terms such as breach of contract, damages and liability stick better when studied together.
2. Note the Turkish equivalent and the difference. Where there is no exact match, explain the difference in one sentence; this lowers the risk of choosing a false equivalent when you translate.
3. Get to know contract patterns. Once you know what shall, may, provided that and notwithstanding do, long clauses become much quicker to read; see the contract English guide.
4. Turn reading into writing. Drafting a short email or a summary of a clause reveals gaps that reading alone hides.
5. Review little and often. A few minutes every day usually works better than one long session a week, and a mobile app makes it easy to spread review across the day.

Key terms are grouped by topic in our guide to legal English terms. Every term linked on this page has a short page with a definition and an example sentence in our legal term directory, which is currently available in Turkish only.

Choosing a legal English course online

When you compare legal English courses or online lessons, these questions help you find the right programme:

• Does the programme focus on law, or does it add a few legal terms to general English?
• Are terms explained together with their Turkish law equivalents and the differences between the systems?
• Can you study on your own schedule and watch lessons again?
• Are the access period and the content stated clearly before you buy?
• In which language are the lessons taught, and does that suit you?

The contents, lesson topics and access terms of the Legal English Training Set are set out in detail on the Training Set page.

The Legal English TR approach

Legal English TR offers online legal English lessons in three parts that work together: the video lessons explain each topic, the dictionary goes deeper into the terms, and the mobile app lets you keep practising during the working day.

You can read about the educator who prepared the lessons on our About Us page.

Frequently asked questions