News

Intensive course: Practical approaches to legal writing in English

2 November 2015

Riga Graduate School of Law invites law professionals to participate in the 12-hour intensive training course "Writing for Law Professionals: Practical approaches to legal writing in English" on 13-14 November 2015 with Chris Goddard (UK), RGSL Senior Lecturer.

The course aims to improve professional writing skills in English. Taking modern professional legal English as a criterion, the first objective is to demystify the genre: by identifying and illustrating the components of legal English, and by exploring and resolving typical problem areas. With that in mind, the course is divided into convenient sections, with the overall message that modern legal English is clear, correct, precise, authoritative, coherent, and stylish. These are the features that explain modern legal English as a suitable criterion. The interactive style aims to promote learning by involving participants actively at both the ideas and examples stages, as well as at the practice stage. The originality of the course lies, not in its content – which draws on acknowledged sources – but in its format and presentation, in particular in promoting active learning style.

Between 1965 and 1983, Christopher Goddard trained, qualified in, and practised, English law. After further study and training, he participated in international projects in Central and Eastern Europe. As a legal linguist, he translates legal texts into English from French, German, and Russian, and edits legal English texts for publishers and law firms. He has been a legal linguistic consultant at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, as EU legal writing expert with the State Prosecutor’s office in Tbilisi, was appointed legal linguistic expert for a European Commission-funded legal linguistics project in Kosovo in 2011 and 2012 and for another EC-funded Europe-wide project related to the European Arrest Warrant in 2013 and 2014. Since 1999 he has worked closely with the Riga Graduate School of Law (RGSL), where he was responsible for establishing the master’s programme in legal linguistics. He runs courses in Continuing Professional Development for lawyers, judges, senior civil servants, translators and interpreters, and others. He is also responsible for the legal skills development and thesis preparation elements of RGSL master's programme in EU and International Law.

Practical details

Time: 13 and 14 November 2015
Language of the course: English
Place: RGSL premises, Strēlnieku iela 4k-2, Rīga

Price

Early Bird Registration by 18 October: 299 EUR + VAT
Standard Registration by 9 November: 399 EUR + VAT
Price includes course attendence, course materials, coffee breaks

For further questions and to apply contact Ksenija Ļevčenko, coordinator of the course, e-mail: ksenija.levcenko(abols)rgsl.edu.lv, phone: + 371 67039202.

Course description