1

Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1. Aims of the study
Whenever a person thinks of law, (s)he will associate it with complication and a sense of
hesitation. In my opinion, they are quite reasonable to have such stereotypes.
The first reason is the language of law, as Tiersma (2000) said, is a “separate language” that
differs dramatically from everyday speech. He also added that legal language is decidedly
peculiar and hard to understand, especially for the perspective of the lay public. The oddity of
the language is due to many Anglo-Saxon, Latin and Norman French relics. Beside archaic
vocabulary, legal language is also famous for its lengthy and complex sentences. Tiersma
(2000) explained that the lengthy sentences are used because they can place all information on
a particular subject into a self-contained unit, so the ambiguity will be reduced.
The language of law has many other features, which made it becomes a kind of variety. The
followings parts will clarify this kind of variety.
The second reason lies in the fact that legal systems in different countries operate not the same
way. The two most common kinds of law are common and civil law. According to Wikipedia,
the free encyclopedia, common law is often referred to as "judge-made-law". It requires
judges to use their discretion in making judgments. It is used when no appropriate statute law
exists. A judges' decision may set a precedent, which must then be followed by all lower
courts when the facts of the case are similar (Retrieved from
Civil law has its roots in Roman law, Canon law and the
Enlightenment. The legal systems in many civil law countries are based around one or several
codes of law, which set out the main principles that guide the law. The main difference that is
usually drawn between the two systems is that common law draws abstract rules from specific
cases, whereas civil law starts out with abstract rules, which judges must then apply to the
various cases before them.
The difference in legal systems is also the main obstacle for foreigner to understand the legal
language of the other countries.
The study aims at contrasting systems of professional words denoting titles in legal systems of


3

Chapter 2: Theoretical background
2.1. General description of legal language
Language, as Yon Maley (1994) said in his article “The language of law”, is the medium,
process and product in the various arenas of the law. Although the law system of Vietnam and
the United States of America is not the same, the legal languages of both systems, share some
characteristics as follows:
Legal language is often full of antiquated, archaic or unnecessary words. It is also famous for
its definiteness, preciseness and technical words. Legal language tends to spell things out
without painstaking attention to minute detail. In everyday language, in order to reach our
communicative purposes, we ordinarily try to leave the obvious unsaid, we take it for granted
that people know what we are thinking and understand what we mean. In a legal discourse,
nothing can be taken for granted, individual significant details must be stated explicitly.
Besides, the complexity of certain legal concepts demands a corresponding complexity in
sentence structure. In the legal language, the structure of a sentence can by surprisingly
complicated. Hardly can we find a simple sentence. In stead, we often find sentences with
qualifying phrases and dependent clauses.
In the next parts, we will examine in more detail the features of legal English and Vietnamese.

2.1.1. Characteristics of English legal language
When discussing language of law, Tiersma (2000) held the view that legal language is strange
and often hard to understand, especially from the perspective of the lay public. He even
classified legal language as a separate language. Lawyers, as he said, often use long, complex
and redundant sentences, conjoined phrases, impersonal instruction and arcane words or
phrases. The reason for the use of lengthy and complex sentences is explained as due to the
desire to place all information on a particular topic into one self-contained unit. Tiersma
(2000) said this tendency presumably reduces the ambiguity that might result if conditions on
a rule or provision are placed in separate sentences.

policy and make it unambiguous –confusing and hermetic though it may seem to the layman”
(Llopis (1999)).
From the inter-discourse level of analysis, the author noted that most legislation has to be
understood against a background of related law, mostly common law.

5

Concluding remarks: The language of law is a kind of register, and legal English is a mixture
of many difference antique languages of the Celt, Anglo-Saxon, Dane, French and Latin. As a
special kind of register, it requires separate systems of vocabulary, structure and terminology
which cause considerable challenges for non-professional people.

2.1.2. Characteristics of Vietnamese legal language
Beside common features of legal language, Vietnamese laws have its own characteristics. The
language of law is considered to be the most typical example of scientific style, which is
characterized by precision and objectiveness. However, in order to reach the preciseness,
sometimes the documents are considered to be too complicated and hard for reader to
interpret.
Since Vietnamese itself is not clear in terms of time and tense, some legal documents in some
cases do not indicate time and tense precisely, which causes considerable problems when the
law is applied.
According to Anh Luu (2006), despite significant improvements, Vietnamese legislation work
is still weak resulting in the legal system being inadequate and unstable. Besides, the laws in
Vietnam are still inconsistent, so sometimes law terms in different document are not
consistent. That is the reason why it is required that law terms should be precise and popular.
(From “Mt s vn  v k thut son tho vn bn qppl”)
There is a tendency that Vietnamese legal language uses short sentences with a logical
sequence.
For example, the term below is a lengthy sentence and difficult to understand. There are many
repetitions which can be eliminated. Such phrases as “kinh doanh, hàng hoá, dch v” are


7

Concluding remarks: There are a lot of problems with Vietnamese legal language. The
reason may be due to the fact that our legal system is still new compared with hundreds of
years of countries like England and the United States. Our legal language will need more time
to evolve.

2.2. Overview of Vietnamese and American legal system
2.2.1. An overview of Vietnamese legal system
According to Vietnam Union of Science and Technology Associations’ website
( from early history, Vietnamese feudal administrations
were quite aware that in order to reign and administer the country they ought to set out their
law. The Lý, Trn and Lê dynasties followed that way, however, only until the Anterior Le
and then the Nguyn, was ruling by written law attached so much attention to. So far, the
Hng c Code (15th century) has been regarded a great and advanced code of the
Vietnamese feudal dynasties.
Compared to that of Europe and America, the building up of the law and governing over the
country by the law in Vit Nam were many centuries behind theirs; only when a new State -
the Democratic Republic of Vit Nam - came into existence, was building the new law
considered an important task of the State.
According to an article introducing legal system in Vietnam on website
of Tran. H. N. & Associates, legal system in Vietnam is
based on communist legal theory and French civil law, with major modifications and additions
from Marxist-Leninist ideology.
There are many similarities to the laws of former socialist countries, especially the former
Soviet Union. Still, some French influence also remains due to a long colonial period from the
19
th
into the mid 20

Notably, a statute does not disappear automatically merely because it has been found
unconstitutional; it must be deleted by a subsequent statute. Many federal and state statutes
have remained on the books for decades after they were ruled to be unconstitutional. However,
under the principle of stare decisis, no sensible lower court will enforce an unconstitutional
statute, and any court that does so will be reversed by the Supreme Court.
Federal law in the United States originates with the Constitution, which gives Congress the
power to enact statutes for certain limited purposes like regulating commerce. Nearly all
statutes have been codified in the United States Code. Many statutes give executive branch
agencies the power to create regulations, which are published in the Federal Register and

9

codified into the Code of Federal Regulations. Regulations generally also carry the force of
law under the Chevron doctrine. Many lawsuits turn on the meaning of a federal statute or
regulation, and judicial interpretations of such meaning carry legal force under the principle of
stare decisis.
The fifty American states are separate sovereigns with their own state constitutions and state
governments. They retain plenary power to make laws covering anything not preempted by
the federal Constitution, federal statutes, or international treaties ratified by the federal Senate.
2.3. The structure of Vietnamese and American courts
2.3.1. The structure of Vietnamese courts
According to website Vietnamese
court can be seen as the diagram below:

Vietnam's judicial bodies are the Supreme People's Court, the local People's Courts at the
provincial, district, and city levels, the military tribunals, and the People's Organs of Control.
It must be added that there is another name of The People’s Organ’s of Control, i.e. Supreme

10


Constitution. A decision of the Supreme Court cannot be appealed to any other court.
Article III of the Constitution states the basis for the federal court system: "The judicial Power
of the United States, shall be vested in one Supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the
Congress may from time to time ordain and establish."
THE FEDERAL COURT SYSTEM
With this guide, the first Congress divided the nation into districts and created federal courts
for each district. From that beginning has evolved the present structure: the Supreme Court, 13
courts of appeals, 94 district courts, and two courts of special jurisdiction. Congress today
retains the power to create and abolish federal courts, as well as to determine the number of
judges in the federal judiciary system. It cannot, however, abolish the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court
of the U.S.
Courts of Appeals -
- 12 Geographic-
based and one for
the Federal Circuit.

The U.S. Court of
Appeals for the
Federal Circuit
The Court of Military
Appeals
The 94 U.S.
District courts and
the specialized
courts, such as the
Tax Court
The Court of Federal
Claims, the Court of
Veterans Appeals, and

larger states, such as New York, California, and Texas, have four districts each.
SPECIAL COURTS
In addition to the federal courts of general jurisdiction, it has been necessary from time to time
to set up courts for special purposes. These are known as "legislative" courts because they
were created by congressional action. Judges in these courts, like their peers in other federal
courts, are appointed for life terms by the president, with Senate approval.
Today, there are two special trial courts that have nationwide jurisdiction over certain types of
cases. The Court of International Trade addresses cases involving international trade and
customs issues. The U.S. Court of Federal Claims has jurisdiction over most claims for money
damages against the United States, disputes over federal contracts, unlawful "takings" of
private property by the federal government, and a variety of other claims against the United
States.

13

STATE COURTS
In America, each state is free to adopt any organizational scheme it chooses, create as many
courts as it wishes, name those courts whatever it pleases, and establish their jurisdiction as it
sees fit.
The state courts may be divided into four general categories or levels: trial courts of limited
jurisdiction, trial courts of general jurisdiction, intermediate appellate courts, and courts of last
resort.
Chapter 3: Contrasting professional titles in legal systems of the United States and
Vietnam
3.1.1. Main titles in Vietnamese judiciary
Although the judiciary of Vietnam consists of two bodies, i.e. the People’s Court and the
Organ’s of Control, the system of titles is not complex. According to “The 2004 Civil
Procedures Code”, titles of the People’s Court consist of “chánh án, th$m phán, hi th$m
nhân dân, kim sát viên, lut s, th ký tòa án”. The power and duty of these titles are
defined in Vietnamese law like “The 2004 Civil Procedures Code” and “Law on lawyers”. We

degree (although some of them can). Here is the list:
Arbitrator, Assistant Administrator, Assistant Prosecutor, Background Investigator,
Bailiff, Bondsman, CJ Systems Planner, Court Clerk, Court Reporter, Courthouse Security,
Defense Attorney, Deputy Assistant, Diversion Specialist, Expert Witness, Grants
Administrator, Investigator, Judicial Assistant, Law Clerk, Lawyer, Legal Research, Manager,
Mediation Specialist, Paralegal, Parole Officer, Probation Officer, Process Server,
Sentencing Analyst, Victim Restitution
The website www.ncsonline.org offers a lot of jobs that relate to the court. Under each title,
there are specific positions. The number of sub-positions is very large. For example, under the
title Administrative Office of the Courts Administrators, there are State Court Administrator,
Deputy State Court Administrator, Regional Administrator, Legal Counsel, Judicial Conduct,

15

Disciplinary Board Directors/Coordinators, Analysts Court, Services Information Technology
Administration, Finance Public Relations/Information, Administrative, Editor, Human
Resources.
Since there are a lot of titles related to the court, the paper only mentions main titles and they
will be contrasted with those in Vietnamese in terms of semantic field. The most basic titles
are: chief justice, judge, magistrate, juror, legal counsel, court attorney, attorney, court clerk
and prosecutor.
The role and duty of these titles are described specifically in websites of North Carolina
Wesleyan College and National Center of State Court.
“chief justice”: The Chief Justice’s role is to set the agenda for the weekly meetings where
the justices review the petitions for certiorari, to decide whether to hear or deny each case.
Power of the Chief Justice has significant influence over the direction of the court. The Chief
Justice also writes an annual report about the federal judiciary, which he or she presents to
Congress.
By virtue of his position, the Chief Justice is the chair of the Judicial Conference and the
Federal Judicial Center and oversees the Administrative Office of the U. S. Courts. These


“Attorney”: This position entails reviewing documentation, investigating information in
preparation for hearings, conducting hearings, and preparing reports, minutes, reviews and
legal memorandum. The attorney also has to analyze policies and procedures and draft
requested changes to rules and regulations. (S)he may have to conduct legal research; draft
presentments and committee reports; prosecute matters at disciplinary hearings; appear for
oral argument before the Supreme Court and prepare ethics. Additional duties will include the
preparation of the Annual Report; and assisting with staff support.

“Jury” and “Juror”: In the law, a jury is a body of citizens in a common law jurisdiction
which decides questions of fact in a legal case. The members of a jury are known as jurors.
In the US, the term can refer to a grand jury which issues an indictment or a petit jury which is
present at a trial. In the United States, England and Scotland, defendants in most serious
criminal cases have a right to trial by jury, although in practice most criminal actions in the
US are resolved by plea bargain.

17

Juries are also used in many civil cases in the United States, and the United States Constitution
explicitly protects the right to a jury in civil as well as criminal cases. In criminal cases, the
right to a jury trial belongs to the defendant; if the defendant decides he or she is likely to do
better without a jury, the prosecution cannot insist on one.
The jurors then hear the cases presented by both the defense and prosecution, and in some
jurisdictions a summing-up from the judge. They then retire as a group to consider a verdict in
secret, which they must reach unanimously in US criminal cases. On the rare occasions when
no unanimous decision can be reached by the jury, a mistrial is declared, and the case must be
retried with a newly constituted jury.
“Prosecutor”: The prosecutor’s duty is presenting the case against an individual suspected of
breaking the law in a criminal trial. However, in the United States, “attorney” is often used in
stead of “prosecutor”.

Ông Roy Pearson, Thm phán Lut Hành chính  th ô Washington DC. gi qun  tim git
i Custom Cleaners nh sa. Qun tht lc. Vài ngày sau, ch tim a qun ra tr, Pearson
nói không phi qun ca ông và do kin. (…)”.

In the headline, the term “quan tòa” is used, however, in the article, the other word “thm
phán” is employed. The explanaion for the difference is that, the term in the headline is often
used colloquially and it has humorous sense when it is combined with other words “mt
qun”, thus it has the effect of attracting readers. The term “thm phán” is used twice in the
content of the article with a serious sense to denote a title in the courts of America.

In the language of judicial branch of the United States, we have at least three other words
denoting the same position as “thm phán”. Although the word “magistrate” is not very
common in America, it does exist and it denotes a judge at district level and he only solves
less serious cases. “Justice” is a synonym of “judge”, and it implies that judge is the one who
brings justice to the society. The word “jurist” is a hypernym of “judge”. According to
Websters-online dictionary, it has two meanings, i.e. a legal scholar versed in civil law or the
law of nations or a public official authorized to decide questions bought before a court of
justice.

19

The official title of “magistrate” is "United States Magistrate Judge." A United States
Magistrate should be addressed orally and in writing, as "Judge _______," to be consistent
with the position's judicial role and official title as prescribed by law. Although some state
courts have a judicial officer called a "magistrate," that title as applied to a United States
Magistrate Judge is obsolete. To address these judges simply as "Magistrate" is akin to
improperly addressing a Lieutenant Colonel as "Lieutenant," or a Bankruptcy Judge as
"Bankruptcy."
According to website the difference between
the two terms “magistrate” and “judge” is that while “district judges are life-tenured judges

involved with
judiciary matters,
i.e. a justice of the
peace

Level of
administrative
working
Working in
specific
office
Popular
term in the
U.S.
Magistrate x x x x 0
Judge x x 0 0 x
Jurist x 0 0 0 x
Justice x x 0 x x

* In Vietnamese judiciary, the judge who has the highest power in the judiciary is called
“chánh án” and at all levels of courts (People's District Courts and the Supreme Court) the
head of the court is also called “chánh án”. However, in American judiciary, “chief justice” is
only used to denote the head person of the Supreme Court. Each court in the federal system
has a “chief judge” who, in addition to hearing cases, has administrative responsibilities
relating to the operation of the court. The chief judge is normally the judge who has served on
the court the longest. From the contrast, we can see the difference in the way the two system
name the head person of each court level
The term “chánh án” has a synonym, which is an old word called “Chng Lý”. Nowadays,
the term is not usually used in legal documents, it is often used in newspaper.
For example, the VOA news has an article that contains the term:

Attorney, District Attorney General (in Tennessee), City Attorney, City Prosecutor or U.S.
Attorney) and may be either appointed or elected. In order to be appointed prosecutor,
nominees must be lawyers.

22

So in America, the term “prosecutor” has one synonym called “attorney”.
As we have mentioned in the previous part, in Vietnamese legal system, there is a separate
organ to initiate criminal cases and the officer who is responsible for the charges is called
“ki!m sát viên”. The term “ki!m sát viên” is sometimes translated as “procurator” and
sometimes as “prosecutor”.
According to Websters online dictionary, “procurator” is “a person authorized to act for
another”. However, there are still many documents employing the term “procurator” to denote
the person who has the power of prosecution. Thus, in my opinion, when we translate the term
“ki!m sát viên” into English, the two words “prosecutor” and “procurator” are acceptable.
Concluding remarks: The word “ki!m sát viên” in Vietnamese legal system is equivalent to
three words in American legal system, “prosecutor, procurator” and “attorney”
3.2.3. The position of lawyer
In Vietnam, “lut s” is a general term to denote people who give legal advice for people,
represent and other people in courts. However, gradually, there are other terms to denote
specific functions of lawyers. For example, there is an article named “Ngh lut s kinh
doanh  Vit Nam” on website which
requires that there should be other terms to call lawyers in Vietnam.
According to “T" i!n ting Vit”, the two words “thy cãi” and “trng s” are both obsolete
words, they are synonyms of “lut s”.
In Vietnamese modern society, the former is often used colloquially with ironical meaning.
For example, the term “thy cãi” is used in the title of the following article to pillory a man
who was a lawyer that did bad things.

“Hoãn phiên tòa xét x “thy cãi” Lê Bo Quc

lawyer, is a person trained and licensed by a relevant jurisdiction to practice law: to represent
clients in legal matters and to give legal advice. In the United States, the term attorney,
standing alone, generally refers to this meaning rather than "attorney-in-fact".”
There are many other synonyms of including "advocate," "lawyer," “barrister," "civil law
notary", "solicitor,” “advocator,” “counsel,” “counselor,” “counselor,” “counselor-at-law”.
However, the paper will only analyse the most common words that are often used in America

24

and cause problems for language users, i.e. attorney, lawyer, barrister, solicitor, counsel, and
advocate.
If we distinguish the six words “attorney, lawyer, barrister, solicitor, counsel, advocate”
basing on the functions of lawyers, the result is that only “solicitor” does not plead case in
court.
Among the six terms, some of them are particularly popular language societies, for example,
“attorney” is often used in the United States, “solicitor and barrister” are used in England.
Beside one joint sense of meaning, the term “attorney” has another meaning in the United
States, i.e. it means “prosecutor”.
Here is the semantic analysis of the six terms: Licensed by
the state,
give advice
and prepare
legal
documentPlead case

schools to train those interested in the legal profession. After the American Revolution (1775-
83), the number of lawyers increased rapidly, because neither legal education nor admission to
the bar was very strict. The apprenticeship method continued to be the most popular way to
receive legal training, but law schools began to come into existence.
As the demand for lawyers increased during the late 1800s, there was a corresponding
acceleration in the creation of new law schools. In the 20th century, the number of people
wanting to study law increased dramatically. The number of lawyers in the United States has
increased steadily over the past half century and is currently estimated at more than 950,000.
America's lawyers apply their professional training in a variety of settings. Some
environments are more profitable and prestigious than others.
In Vietnam, according to Phan Huu Thu (2001), before 1930, French colonialists did not allow
Vietnamese people to work as lawyers. On 25 May 1930, the colonialist issued a decree to
establish lawyer association and Vietnamese people were allowed to join in. During war time,
there were not much opportunities for lawyer career to develop. There are three landmarks for
the development of lawyer career in Vietnam, i.e. the law on lawyer issued in 1987, 2001 and
2007. According to an article “WTO membership illuminates weakness of local lawyers” on
website the country currently has 819
organisations offering legal services, 149 branches and 653 law offices. The numbers fall well
short of actual need. Lawyers mainly work in large cities, while mountainous provinces like
Dien Bien and Lai Chau have far too few lawyers to even establish their bar associations.
According to the report, the ability of these lawyers falls short of the requirements of judicial
reforms and international economic integration. Other weaknesses in an unclear and
incompetent legal system, the lack of lawyers specialized in the fields of investment, business,
and trade, as well as the inability to work with court procedures is pose serious problems for
Vietnamese lawyers.