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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.
E-Book Content
Parchment, Paper, Pixels
PARCHMENT PAPER PIXELS Law and the Technologies of Communication
P E TE R M. TIE RSM A The University of Chicago Press Chicago and London
Peter M. Tiersma
is professor of law at Loyola Law School in California. He is the author of Legal Language and Frisian Reference Grammar and coauthor of Speaking of Crime: The Language of Criminal Justice. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637 The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London © 2010 by The University of Chicago All rights reserved. Published 2010 Printed in the United States of America 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10
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ISBN-13: 978-0-226-80306-7 (cloth) ISBN-10: 0-226-80306-6 (cloth) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Tiersma, Peter Meijes. Parchment, paper, pixels : law and the technologies of communication / Peter M. Tiersma. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-226-80306-7 (cloth: alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-226-80306-6 (cloth: alk. paper) 1. Technology and law. 2. Communication in law. 3. Communication—Technological innovations. 5. Law—Technological innovations. 6. Law—Information tehnology. 7. Legal documents. I. Title. K487.T4T54 2010 343.09'9—dc22 2010002014 a The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Introduction 1 Speech, Writing, and Text 13 Wills 49 Contracts 83 Statutes 133 Judicial Opinions and the Concept of Precedent 177 Conclusion 221 Notes 227 Index 251
Acknowledgments
Anyone who carefully peruses the endnotes of this book will be able to surmise that it has been in the making for over a decade. I owe a debt of gratitude to many people with whom I have discussed the issues raised in the book or who have read and commented on some or all of it. In particular, I wish to thank Peter Alldridge, Stephen Barnett, Bob Brain, Paul Callister, Richard Cappalli, Charles Collier, Sydney DeLong, Jan Engberg, Edward Finegan, Lidewij van Gils, Victor Gold, Robin Kar, Daniel Martin, Michael Sinclair, Larry Solan, Elizabeth Traugott, and participants at workshops or presentations at Chicago-Kent Law School, the City University of Hong Kong, Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, the Law and Society Association, the Deutsch-Amerikanische Jur