Юридические термины и их особенности в британском и американском вариантах английского языка

Abstract

The article contains a comparative analysis of legal terms in the British and American variants of the English language. The author points out that the British term is understood as the one belonging to the law of England and Wales since Scotland and Northern Ireland have a different law system. The article contains a classification of legal terms based on the absence or presence of differences between the British and American variants, as well as the character of differences. According to this principle legal terms are divided into five categories: 1) terms with the same meaning, 2) terms having different definitions, 3) terms expressing the same concept differently, 4) terms existing only in one variant (British or American), 5) terms used predominantly in one variant of the English language but occurring in the other variant. All the given similarities and differences are illustrated by examples. The paper also gives examples of differences in spelling in the two variants.