Acknowledgements ; Contributors ; Preface ; Part I ; Legal Language and Its History ; 1. Peter M. Tiersma, Excerpt from A History of the Languages of Law (in The Oxford Handbook of Language and Law) ; 2. Peter M. Tiersma, Excerpt from Legal Language ; 3. Peter M. Tiersma, Excerpt from Parchment, Paper, Pixels ; 4. Peter M. Tiersma, Excerpt from Some Myths about Legal Language ; 5. Frederick Schauer, On the Relationship Between Legal and Ordinary Language ; 6. Ronald R. Butters, Legal Language and its History: Quo Imus? Qua Imus? ; 7. Frank S. Ravitch, Philosophical Hermeneutics in the Age of Pixels: Hans-Georg Gadamer, Peter Tiersma, and Dasein in the Age of the Internet ; 8. Edward Finegan, The Language of Lawyers and the Language of Plumbers ; 9. Dieter Stein, Words, Words, Words - But What's in a Text? ; Part II ; The Language of Contracts and Wills ; 10. Peter M. Tiersma, Excerpt from Parchment, Paper, Pixels ; 11. Peter M. Tiersma, Excerpt from Reassessing Unilateral Contracts ; 12. Brian H. Bix, Philosophy of Language, Unilateral Contracts, and the Law ; 13. Sidney W. DeLong, How to do Legal Things with Words: The Contracts Scholarship of Peter Tiersma ; 14. Peter Goodrich, Tiersma Contra Mundum In Defence Of Promises ; 15. Jeffrey M. Lipshaw, Formalism, Speech Acts, and The Realities Of Contract Formation ; Part III ; Speech and Action ; The Meanings of Silence in Law ; 16. Peter M. Tiersma, Excerpts from The Language of Silence ; 17. Peter M. Tiersma, Excerpt from Nonverbal Communication and the Freedom of Speech ; 18. Elizabeth Mertz, Law's Metalinguistics: Silence, Speech, and Action ; 19. Malcolm Coulthard, The Sounds of Silence ; 20. Meizhen Liao, Speech or Silence: Within and Beyond Language and Law ; Consenting ; 21. Peter M. Tiersma, Excerpt fromThe Language of Consent in Rape Law (In Janet Cotterill (ed.), The Language of Sexual Crime (pp. 91-97) ; 22. Susan Ehrlich, 'Inferring' Consent in the Context of Rape and Sexual Assault ; 23. Tim Grant & Kerrie Spaul, Felicitous Consent ; 24. Gregory M. Matoesian, Reflections on Peter Tiersma's <"The Language and Consent in Rape Law>" ; 25. Gail Stygall, Speaking of Consent ; Defaming ; 26. Peter M. Tiersma, Excerpt from The Language of Defamation ; 27. John M. Conley, Defamation as Speech Act: A Theory that Works ; 28. Roger W. Shuy, Applying Tiersma's Defamation Theory to Defamation Cases ; 29. Krzysztof Kredens, Scarlet Letter or Badge of Honour? Semantic Interpretation in Changing Contexts of Culture ; Part IV ; Interpreting Laws ; 30. Peter M. Tiersma, Excerpt from Parchment, Paper, Pixels (pp. 169-176, starting with "Dynamic Statutes") ; 31. Peter M. Tiersma, Excerpt from The Textualization of Precedent (pp. 1187-89, 1257-62). ; 32. Lawrence M. Solan, Talk About Text as Text ; 33. Jeffrey P. Kaplan, Textualization, Textualism, and Purpose-Stating Preambles ; 34. Dru Stevenson, Between Paper and Pixels - How the Form of Modern Laws Changed their Function ; Part V ; Language and Criminal Justice ; Crimes of Language ; 35. Peter M. Tiersma, Except from The Language of Perjury: <"Literal Truth,>" Ambiguity, and the False Statement Requirement ; 36. Lawrence M. Solan and Peter M. Tiersma, <"Threats>" (from Speaking of Crime (pp. 198-204) ; 37. Janet Ainsworth, How We Play Games with Words in the Law ; 38. Philip Gaines, Toward a Communicative Approach to Law- and Rule-Making ; 39. Susan Berk-Seligson, Threats: A Pragmalinguistic Approach to the Analysis of a Speech Crime ; Criminal Justice and Everyday Speech ; 40. Peter M. Tiersma, Except from The Judge as Linguist ; 41. Hannes Kniffka, Applied (Forensic) Linguistics in Autochthonic and Allochthonic Use ; 42. Richard A. Leo, The Sound of Silence: Miranda Waivers, Selective Literalism and Social Context ; 43. Laurie L. Levenson, Words Alone ; 44. Frances Rock, Sizzling Irons: Speaking of Criminal Justice ; Part VI ; Jury Instructions ; 45. Peter M. Tiersma, Excerpt from The Rocky Road to Legal Reform ; 46. Peter M. Tiersma, Excerpt from Legal Language ; 47. Bethany K. Dumas, Navigating the Rocky Road ; 48. Chris Heffer, Authority and Accommodation: Judicial Responses to Jurors' Questions ; 49. Nancy S. Marder, Jury Instructions Written for Jurors: A Perennial Challenge ; Bibliography of Peter Tiersma's Work