Experts in linguistics and law use diverse theoretical and analytical approaches to demonstrate the complex ways in which language is used to seek, steer, give, or withhold consent in a range of legal contexts. The book illuminates problematic issues in legal practices and procedures that may otherwise be uncritically accepted.

Chapter 1 Introduction: Linguistic and Discursive Dimensions of Consent Susan Ehrlich and Diana Eades Section 1: Free and voluntary consent Chapter 2 Culture, cursing, and coercion: The impact of police officer swearing on the voluntariness of consent to search in police-citizen interactions Janet Ainsworth Chapter 3 Post-penetration rape: Coercion or freely-given consent? Susan Ehrlich Chapter 4 Erasing context in the courtroom construal of consent Diana Eades Section 2: Informed consent vs. ritualized consent Chapter 5 Talking the ethical turn: Drawing on tick-box consent in policing Frances Rock Chapter 6 Transparent and opaque consent in contract formation Lawrence Solan Chapter 7 The empty performative?: Informed consent to genetic research John Conley, R. Jean Cadigan and Arlene Davis Section 3: The influence of discursive practices Chapter 8 Promoting litigant consent to arbitration in multilingual small claims court Philipp Sebastian Angermeyer Chapter 9 Consent and compliance in youth justice conferences? Michele Zappavigna, Paul Dwyer and J. R. Martin Chapter 10 Non-consent and discursive resistance: Radical reformulation in a post-sting police interview Philip Gaines Section 4: The coercive force of cautions Chapter 11 Totality of circumstances and translating the Miranda warnings Susan Berk-Seligson Chapter 12 Negotiating the right to remain silent in inquisitorial trials Fleur van der Houwen and Guusje Jol Chapter 13 'No comment' responses to questions in police investigative interviews Elizabeth Stokoe, Derek Edwards and Helen Edwards

"Overall, Discursive Constructions does a good job reminding readers of how legally-shaped consent practices are broadly and regularly deployed in daily life." -- Jason Johnson Peretz, Political and Legal Anthropology Review "This exhaustive and timely overview of consent s position within our criminal and civil legal systems in the UK, US, Australia and the Netherlands should serve as something of a call to arms for those of us working in all areas of forensic linguistics and language and law. It is wholly consistent with an understanding of our role as one which seeks to protect human rights and be driven by questions of social justice (Eades, 2010: 422), and sheds further light on how we as linguists can contribute to such an effort." --Language and Law

Selling point: Uses empirical evidence from real cases to demonstrate inadequacies in how consent is understood and operationalized within the legal system Selling point: Considers how the ideal of informed consent can be compromised by the ritualistic nature of consent-seeking, whether in police interviews, or medical research or in signing of consumer contract Selling point: Examines linguistic and discursive strategies used by individuals in attempts to decline to consent in legal contexts, as well as factors involved in the variable success of these attempts Selling point: Presents problems arising from the law's tendency to ignore the central role of context in interactions where consent is sought, including interactions with police

Susan Ehrlich is Professor of Linguistics at York University in Toronto. Diana Eades is Adjunct Professor at University of New England. Janet Ainsworth is the John D. Eshelman Professor of Law at Seattle University and Research Professor in the Research Center for Legal Translation at China University of Political Science and Law.

Selling point: Uses empirical evidence from real cases to demonstrate inadequacies in how consent is understood and operationalized within the legal system Selling point: Considers how the ideal of informed consent can be compromised by the ritualistic nature of consent-seeking, whether in police interviews, or medical research or in signing of consumer contract Selling point: Examines linguistic and discursive strategies used by individuals in attempts to decline to consent in legal contexts, as well as factors involved in the variable success of these attempts Selling point: Presents problems arising from the law's tendency to ignore the central role of context in interactions where consent is sought, including interactions with police