Law Latin

Law Latin, sometimes written L.L. or L. Lat., and sometimes derisively called Dog Latin, is a form of Latin used in legal contexts. Some of its vocabulary comes from Latin, but much of it stems from English, and it may be seen as a mixture of English, French and Latin words superimposed over an English syntax. It was the language in which the records of English lawsuits and other causes at law, as distinguished from those in equity and other prerogative tribunals, were kept until the reign of George II, when the Proceedings in Courts of Justice Act 1730, effective from 1733, required English records instead. Law Latin was also the language of writs, royal charters, letters patent and many other legal instruments, and it was still in use in England and Scotland for some instruments as late as 1867. In South Africa, knowledge of Latin was required to join the General Council of the Bar until 1988.