No one knows more than I what a royal pain legal language can be. I have to read this stuff all the time. Sometimes in Hebrew. Ibuprofen is my friend.
Yet sometimes, there is a glimmer of light, a spark of clarity in the dank fog of legal verbiage, thanks to judges who apparently do, after all, have both feet firmly planted in the street.
For your reading pleasure: this erudite (and funny) analysis of the appearance of Yiddish terms in legal opinions, by Judge Alex Kozinski & Eugene Volokh, entitled “Lawsuit, Shmawsuit.”
Enjoy:
http://www.law.ucla.edu/volokh/yiddish.htm
August 19th, 2009 10:39
Is this required reading for those in the Kozinski fan club?
September 1st, 2009 10:58
Definitely. And I must dig up a link to that story about his winning the Judicial Hottie award several years ago…
October 11th, 2009 11:02
The Yiddish of the founding fathers and Lincoln:
http://alanlaz.blogspot.com/2007/04/yeshivish-gettysburg-address-and-pledge.html