Last week I had the opportunity of meeting the author of an excellent book entitled “Legal English : Niezbędnik przyszłego prawnika“. The book, with a Polish focus as the title indicates, teaches legal English for a range of areas of law including: family, inheritance, property, contract, employment, financial, tax, and criminal law, as well as European law, public international law and constitutional law, and more.

It enables learners to discuss Polish law in English, as they will have to in their legal practice, and there is additional material from all over the world.

Each chapter opens with a carefully chosen citation such as the one below from Robert W. Sarnoff 🙂 and provides practice in reading, speaking, listening, and vocabulary – including legal collocations, as well as a legal problem for discussion and analysis.

Finance is the art of passing money from hand to hand until it finally disappears.

The last section of the book covers the history of Polish law, contemporary political systems, the court system, human rights, and finally sets out nine cases to discuss.  A bilingual glossary is included, and there is a CD with listening material.

Although I don’t speak Polish, I have had extensive experience teaching language for business, law, finance and related fields, and in my personal opinion the book is a gem. It is very well laid out from a graphics point of view, provides wide-ranging exercises that are up-to-date and lively, with nice touches of humour, whilst being full of legal language and content.

In addition to being of great use for non-native lawyers wishing to perfect their English, the book would also be highly relevant for legal translators working from or into Polish.

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Disclosure: I was provided with a specimen copy to examine.