Susan Philips, Ideology in the language of judges: How judges practice law, politics, and courtroom control. (Oxford studies in anthropological linguistics, 17.) Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. Pp. xvii, 205. Hb $59.00, pb $29.95.

Abstract

In a time when some scholars are bemoaning an apparent drop in attention to the role of ideology in legal settings, Philips's new book comes as a welcome intervention. The author uses fine-grained analysis of courtroom language to reveal the pervasive influence of ideology on trial court judges' practices. Followers of Philips's pioneering work on legal language will not be disappointed; the volume lives up to the exacting standard she set for the field in her early articles on courtroom (and classroom) discourse. The study uses discourse analysis of guilty pleas in an Arizona criminal court to uncover how wider social-structural and political divisions are affecting the administration of justice – a process mediated by ideology and enacted in the minute details of linguistic exchanges.