Between legal and social truths

The management of intertextual gaps in the construction of narrative authority in a US mock trial competition

Authors

  • Joon-Beom Chu Chonbuk National University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/jalpp.32165

Keywords:

courtroom discourse, intertextuality, interdiscursivity, jury trials, law school socialization

Abstract

This article explores how US law students learn to manage ‘intertextuality’, or the circulation of words, phrases, and conversations across diverse contexts of language use, as an effective communication tool in a mock trial competition. Using discourse and conversation analytical methods to identify the communication strategies used by a law student in one such competition, I argue that law students learn two intertextual strategies that link courtroom discourse with both institutional and social sources of textual authority. On the one hand, they minimize what may be called ‘intertextual gaps’ to project the institutional authority of official texts such as sworn depositions; and conversely, they maximize ‘intertextual gaps’ to perform commonly recognizable social conversations with witnesses and jurors. By learning various intertextual strategies in mock trials, law students learn to build a coherent narrative in the courtroom out of a heterogeneous mixture of legal and social texts, bringing together the institutional and social worlds that these texts conjure up. As law students learn to shift between legal and social conversations in the courtroom, they realize the power of legal institutions to reproduce and legitimize dominant social hierarchies.

Author Biography

  • Joon-Beom Chu, Chonbuk National University

    Joon-Beom Chu received his PhD in anthropology from the University of Arizona and he is an instructor at Chonbuk National University. His research explores the socio-cultural underpinnings of legal language from a globalization perspective. He is currently researching communication between foreign workers and the criminal justice system in a small city in North Jeolla Province, South Korea.

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Published

2019-07-09

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Chu, J.-B. (2019). Between legal and social truths: The management of intertextual gaps in the construction of narrative authority in a US mock trial competition. Journal of Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice, 12(2), 123-143. https://doi.org/10.1558/jalpp.32165

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