Advanced Interpretation: Law and Corpus Linguistics Executive Education Course in Washington, DC

This executive education program is an interactive introduction to the theories and tools of CL as applied to problems of legal interpretation. The program is designed to introduce participants to the theory and cutting-edge methods of interpretation introduced by CL. Participants will learn to understand and operationalize these methods as applied to a range of litigation-based case studies of statutory and constitutional interpretation. Participants will also be introduced to possible applications in emerging fields, such as contract interpretation, patent claim construction, and analysis of trademark protectability.

The program aims to prepare participants to:

1. Understand the theoretical grounding and empirical motivation for the use of CL tools to assist in legal interpretation.
2. Identify the shortcomings of traditional tools of interpretation and learn how the tools of CL can help address these shortcomings.
3. Identify the range of questions CL can be used to answer.
4. Learn CL methods and tools for addressing problems of legal interpretation.
5. Understand and learn to apply best practices in CL methods to problems of constitutional and statutory interpretation.
6. Create a case-specific corpus to address interpretive problems for which existing corpora may not be sufficient.

Participants will engage in hands-on workshops, small group activities, classroom discussions, case studies, and lectures, which will be structured to ensure an in-depth understanding of ways in which CL is already being applied to aid interpretation as well as ways in which they can employ CL to help find answers to language questions in a variety of settings.

Course curriculum will immerse participants in several topics through the lens of CL:

• Contemporary Methods to Interpretation: Overview of the various tools used in interpretation and their respective strengths and weaknesses
• (Corpus) Linguistic Theory: Current literature from linguistics regarding language use and analysis
• General and Specialist Corpora: Introduction to COCA, COHA, COFEA, and other widely used corpora
• Corpus Tools: Practice using both online and downloadable software for conducting corpus analyses, using concordance line analysis, collocation, and other tools
• Applications in Constitutional and Statutory Interpretation: Review of interpretive problems in case law to illustrate where, how, and why corpus linguistics may be applied and how it could potentially be applied in the future
• Emerging Applications: Examination of the use of CL in contract, patent, and trademark law
• Best Practices in Corpus Design and Analysis: Guidelines and steps for conducting a corpus analysis and evaluating the quality of analyses conducted by others

This course is designed for practicing lawyers, academics, or judges with an interest in the use of tools of corpus linguistics as applied to problems of interpretation. No background knowledge of linguistics is expected or assumed.

To ensure a more intimate and collegial, small group setting, the class size is limited.