"This book is designed expressly for students in Juris Master, Master of Jurisprudence, and Master of Legal Studies programs. This concise paperback empowers students whose professional background is outside of law with a foundational understanding of the United States legal system and insight into what lawyers do. The book covers key concepts, including: Understanding the roles of legislatures, agencies, and courts; Recognizing and using basic legal vocabulary in context; Reading a variety of legal documents efficiently and effectively; Writing law-related reports and correspondence; Reading and understanding the function of primary sources of law, including statutes, regulations, and cases; Understanding the basic elements of a contract and participating in contracting processes; and Recognizing and avoiding the unauthorized practice of law"--

To understand how the legal system works, students must consider the law in terms of its structures, processes, language, and modes of thought and argument—in short, they must become literate in the field. Legal Literacy fulfills this aim by providing a foundational understanding of key concepts such as legal personhood, jurisdiction, and precedent, and by introducing students to legal research and writing skills. Examples of cases, statutes, and other legal materials support these concepts. While Legal Literacy is an introductory text, it also challenges students to consider critically the system they are studying. Touching on significant socio-legal issues such as access to justice, legal jargon, and plain language, Zariski critiques common legal traditions and practices, and analyzes what it means “to think like a lawyer.” As such, the text provides a sound basis for those who wish to pursue further studies in law or legal studies as well as those seeking a better understanding of how the legal field relates to the society that it serves.

Today, it has been said, the world is "flat," as online media allow information to move easily from point to point across the earth. International legal differences, however, are increasingly affecting the ease with which data and ideas can be shared across nations. Copyright law, for example, affects the international flow of materials by stipulating who has the right to replicate or to share certain kinds of content. Similarly, perspectives on privacy rights can differ from nation to nation and affect how personal information is shared globally. Moreover, national laws can affect the exchange of ideas by stipulating the language in which information must be presented in different geopolitical regions. Today's technical communicators need to understand how legal factors can affect communication practices if they wish to work effectively in global contexts. This collection provides an overview of different legal aspects that technical communicators might encounter when creating materials or sharing information in international environments. Through addressing topics ranging from privacy rights and information exchange to the legalities of business practices in virtual worlds and perspectives on authorship and ownership, the contributors to this volume examine a variety of communication-based legal issues that can cause problems or miscommunication in international interactions. Reviewing such topics from different perspectives, the authors collectively provide ideas that could serve as a foundation for creating best practices on or for engaging in future research in the area of legal issues in international settings.

Technological revolutions have had an unquestionable, if still debatable, impact on culture and society—perhaps none more so than the written word. In the legal realm, the rise of literacy and print culture made possible the governing of large empires, the memorializing of private legal transactions, and the broad distribution of judicial precedents and legislation. Yet each of these technologies has its shadow side: written or printed texts easily become static and the textual practices of the legal profession can frustrate ordinary citizens, who may be bound by documents whose implications they scarcely understand. Parchment, Paper, Pixels offers an engaging exploration of the impact of three technological revolutions on the law. Beginning with the invention of writing, continuing with the mass production of identical copies of legal texts brought about by the printing press, and ending with a discussion of computers and the Internet, Peter M. Tiersma traces the journey of contracts, wills, statutes, judicial opinions, and other legal texts through the past and into the future. Though the ultimate effects of modern technologies on our legal system remain to be seen, Parchment, Paper, Pixels offers readers an insightful guide as to how our shifting forms of technological literacy have shaped and continue to shape the practice of law today.

The Business Guide to Legal Literacy bridges the gap between law and business by translating legalese into language that makes business sense and offers a new way to think about the law¾as a useful business tool. The book is filled with dozens of real-life examples that illustrate a step-by-step process for avoiding lawsuits and transforming potential business legal problems that threaten growth and profitability into opportunities for · Building stronger business relationships · Delivering sustainable shareholder value · Improving competitive advantage · Embedding compliance into the corporate culture to achieve organizational excellence This much-needed resource makes the connection between law, business, decision-making psychology, quality management, organizational change, and leadership and shows how these disciplines influence the company’s legal risk profile. It tackles legal literacy on both the employee and organizational levels and identifies the infrastructure needed to support legal literacy and promote effective communications throughout the organization.

Public Policies in Media and Information Literacy in Europe explores the current tensions in European countries as they attempt to tackle the transition to the digital age, providing a comparative and cross-cultural analysis of Media and Information Literacy (MIL) across Europe. This book takes a long-term perspective over the development of media education in Europe, and includes an appraisal of media, information, computer and digital literacies as they coalesce and diverge in the public debate over twenty-first-century skills. The contributors assess the various definitions of media and information literacy as a composite notion whose evolution as a cross-cultural phenomenon reveals various trends and influences in Europe. Throughout, this volume offers an in-depth coverage of MIL with all the different dimensions of policy-making, from legal frameworks to training, funding, evaluation and good practices. The authors propose modeling current MIL governance trends in Europe and conclude with a call for alternative and collective frames of research that they hope will influence policy-makers and other stakeholders, especially in terms of MIL governance. This collection is ideal for students and researchers of MIL, as well as policy makers, educators and associations interested in MIL in the digital age.

With patient experience at the forefront of health care, effective communication of health messages is critical to quality care. This book offers proven strategies to help providers clearly explain health information to a variety of audiences, from patients and caregivers, to students and the public.