NGHIÊN cứu đối CHIẾU các CHỨC DANH TRONG hệ THỐNG LUẬT PHÁP TRONG TIẾNG ANH và TIẾNG VIỆT

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Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1. Aims of the study
Whenever a person thinks of law, (s)he will associate it with complication and a sense of
hesitation. In my opinion, they are quite reasonable to have such stereotypes.
The first reason is the language of law, as Tiersma (2000) said, is a “separate language” that
differs dramatically from everyday speech. He also added that legal language is decidedly
peculiar and hard to understand, especially for the perspective of the lay public. The oddity of
the language is due to many Anglo-Saxon, Latin and Norman French relics. Beside archaic
vocabulary, legal language is also famous for its lengthy and complex sentences. Tiersma
(2000) explained that the lengthy sentences are used because they can place all information on
a particular subject into a self-contained unit, so the ambiguity will be reduced.
The language of law has many other features, which made it becomes a kind of variety. The
followings parts will clarify this kind of variety.
The second reason lies in the fact that legal systems in different countries operate not the same
way. The two most common kinds of law are common and civil law. According to Wikipedia,
the free encyclopedia, common law is often referred to as "judge-made-law". It requires
judges to use their discretion in making judgments. It is used when no appropriate statute law
exists. A judges' decision may set a precedent, which must then be followed by all lower
courts when the facts of the case are similar (Retrieved from
Civil law has its roots in Roman law, Canon law and the
Enlightenment. The legal systems in many civil law countries are based around one or several
codes of law, which set out the main principles that guide the law. The main difference that is
usually drawn between the two systems is that common law draws abstract rules from specific
cases, whereas civil law starts out with abstract rules, which judges must then apply to the
various cases before them.
The difference in legal systems is also the main obstacle for foreigner to understand the legal
language of the other countries.
The study aims at contrasting systems of professional words denoting titles in legal systems of

Vietnam and of other countries, mainly the United States. From the contrast, the sameness and

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differences will be concluded, so I hope it will help Vietnamese learners in general and law
students in particular to have proper understanding and use of legal titles.

1.2. Methodology
In order to contrast legal titles in American legal system with those in Vietnamese legal
system, I will adopt contrastive method suggested by James C. (1980). The contrastive method
requires two steps:
- Step one: In this step, a full description of legal titles in American and Vietnamese
legal system will be made.
- Step two: After the descriptive process is the comparison stage. At this stage,
similarities and differences are inferred.
Beside contrastive method, qualitative method is used. Data from many sources related to the
topic are collected to serve for description and comparison stages.

1.3. Scope of the study
Since there are many titles in legal system, the study will choose to compare professional titles
in judicial branch and only some prominent titles are selected. It should be noted that the legal
system of the United States of America is chosen to compare with those of Vietnamese.
The main reason explained for the differences of the two legal systems is the legal culture of
the two countries and the study only deals with linguistic aspect.

1.4. Significance of the study
The study will be of great help for foreign language learners as well as for law students. It will
help them to have proper understanding of legal titles as they can use a checklist of legal titles
as a reference source.

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Chapter 2: Theoretical background
2.1. General description of legal language
Language, as Yon Maley (1994) said in his article “The language of law”, is the medium,
process and product in the various arenas of the law. Although the law system of Vietnam and
the United States of America is not the same, the legal languages of both systems, share some
characteristics as follows:
Legal language is often full of antiquated, archaic or unnecessary words. It is also famous for
its definiteness, preciseness and technical words. Legal language tends to spell things out
without painstaking attention to minute detail. In everyday language, in order to reach our
communicative purposes, we ordinarily try to leave the obvious unsaid, we take it for granted
that people know what we are thinking and understand what we mean. In a legal discourse,
nothing can be taken for granted, individual significant details must be stated explicitly.
Besides, the complexity of certain legal concepts demands a corresponding complexity in
sentence structure. In the legal language, the structure of a sentence can by surprisingly
complicated. Hardly can we find a simple sentence. In stead, we often find sentences with
qualifying phrases and dependent clauses.
In the next parts, we will examine in more detail the features of legal English and Vietnamese.

2.1.1. Characteristics of English legal language
When discussing language of law, Tiersma (2000) held the view that legal language is strange
and often hard to understand, especially from the perspective of the lay public. He even
classified legal language as a separate language. Lawyers, as he said, often use long, complex
and redundant sentences, conjoined phrases, impersonal instruction and arcane words or
phrases. The reason for the use of lengthy and complex sentences is explained as due to the
desire to place all information on a particular topic into one self-contained unit. Tiersma
(2000) said this tendency presumably reduces the ambiguity that might result if conditions on
a rule or provision are placed in separate sentences.

Tiersma (2000) also added that the language of law can sometimes be informal and versatile.
In discussing the language of law, Bhatia K. (1993) indicated that legal language encompasses
several usefully distinguishable genres depending on communicative purposes, the settings, or
contexts in which they are used to classify, the communicative events or activities they are

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associated with, the social or professional relationship between the participants bring to the
situation in which that particular event is embedded and a number of other factors. The result
is that the author classified the language of law into many subtypes, such as textbooks,
journals, cases, judgements, contracts, agreements, insurances, jury instructions.
When González (1999) wrote about ways of gripping legal language, he also gave out some
features of the language that cause problems for learners , i.e. grammatical and syntactical
difficulties, terminological and phraseological conventions of the field, the differences that
hold between the legal systems, for instance, in the case of the English-Spanish language pair.
Furthermore, students of legal English are exposed to certain technical concepts that they
might not yet have come across in their Law course.
From discourse analysis perspective, legal text is considered from different levels. Llopis
María Ángeles Orts (1999) divided legal text into two main different levels: Intra-discourse
level and Inter-discourse level.
The intra-discourse level of analysis includes the textual level and the discourse level. At
textual level, as far as lexical terms are concerned, “the text under analysis shows the
appearance of typical features, namely technical terms or terms of art, i.e., words specific to
the genre” ( Llopis (1999)),
With regard to syntactic features, the author stated that legal text often includes the use of
nominalization, passives, conditionals, use of unique determiners, parallel structures, as well
as a high frequency of prepositional phrases in unusual position.
The discourse level “includes the strategies to achieve cohesion and coherence in the text”
(Llopis (1999)).Coherence is achieved in “the conceptual and formal obscurity, aimed at
being understandable to the legal specialist , to offer clarifications about various aspects of the

policy and make it unambiguous –confusing and hermetic though it may seem to the layman”
(Llopis (1999)).
From the inter-discourse level of analysis, the author noted that most legislation has to be
understood against a background of related law, mostly common law.

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Concluding remarks: The language of law is a kind of register, and legal English is a mixture
of many difference antique languages of the Celt, Anglo-Saxon, Dane, French and Latin. As a
special kind of register, it requires separate systems of vocabulary, structure and terminology
which cause considerable challenges for non-professional people.

2.1.2. Characteristics of Vietnamese legal language
Beside common features of legal language, Vietnamese laws have its own characteristics. The
language of law is considered to be the most typical example of scientific style, which is
characterized by precision and objectiveness. However, in order to reach the preciseness,
sometimes the documents are considered to be too complicated and hard for reader to
interpret.
Since Vietnamese itself is not clear in terms of time and tense, some legal documents in some
cases do not indicate time and tense precisely, which causes considerable problems when the
law is applied.
According to Anh Luu (2006), despite significant improvements, Vietnamese legislation work
is still weak resulting in the legal system being inadequate and unstable. Besides, the laws in
Vietnam are still inconsistent, so sometimes law terms in different document are not
consistent. That is the reason why it is required that law terms should be precise and popular.
(From “Mt s vn  v k thut son tho vn bn qppl”)
There is a tendency that Vietnamese legal language uses short sentences with a logical
sequence.
For example, the term below is a lengthy sentence and difficult to understand. There are many
repetitions which can be eliminated. Such phrases as “kinh doanh, hàng hoá, dch v” are

repeated many times, and the term can be shortened. The example below is extracted form
website
The long form:

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" i vi hàng hoá, dch v kinh doanh có iu kin, các t chc hoc cá nhân không
c phép kinh doanh mà kinh doanh, hoc c phép kinh doanh mà trong quá trình kinh
doanh không thng xuyên m bo các iu kin qui nh cho loi hàng hoá, dch v ó, u
coi là hành vi kinh doanh trái phép, tu theo mc  vi phm s b x lý hành chính hoc b
truy cu trách nhim hình s theo qui nh ca pháp lut hin hành " (Article 15 Decision 36-
CP5 January 1995 of the Government) .
And the reduced form:
" Vic kinh doanh nhng hàng hoá, dch v có iu kin khi không c phép hoc
không m bo các yêu cu qui nh i vi hàng hoá dch v ó u b coi là hành vi kinh
doanh trái phép và có th b x lý hành chính hoc truy cu trách nhim hình s tu theo mc
 vi phm ".
From 90 words, the term has been reduced to 60 words but the content is unchanged.
Vietnamese legal language is often seen as colloquial language, as a result, some documents
are redundant. The main reason for the redundancy is that compilers’ negligence and they use
many synonyms of terms.
For example:
" Hp ng kinh t là s tho thun bng vn bn, tài liu giao dch gia các bên ký kt v
vic thc hin công vic sn xut, trao i hàng hoá, dch v, nghiên cu, ng dng tin b
khoa h c k! thut và các tho thun khác nhm mc ích kinh doanh vi s quy nh rõ ràng
quyn và ngh"a v ca m#i bên  xây dng và thc hin k hoch ca mình ".
(Article 1 Law on Economic Contract).
If the repetition of terms that have the same meaning is avoided, the article will be shortened,
thus, it will make the regulation more precise and easy to understand. In the example, the two
terms “vn bn” and “tài liu” have the same meaning.

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Concluding remarks: There are a lot of problems with Vietnamese legal language. The
reason may be due to the fact that our legal system is still new compared with hundreds of
years of countries like England and the United States. Our legal language will need more time
to evolve.

2.2. Overview of Vietnamese and American legal system
2.2.1. An overview of Vietnamese legal system
According to Vietnam Union of Science and Technology Associations’ website
( from early history, Vietnamese feudal administrations
were quite aware that in order to reign and administer the country they ought to set out their
law. The Lý, Trn and Lê dynasties followed that way, however, only until the Anterior Le
and then the Nguyn, was ruling by written law attached so much attention to. So far, the
Hng c Code (15th century) has been regarded a great and advanced code of the
Vietnamese feudal dynasties.
Compared to that of Europe and America, the building up of the law and governing over the
country by the law in Vit Nam were many centuries behind theirs; only when a new State -
the Democratic Republic of Vit Nam - came into existence, was building the new law
considered an important task of the State.
According to an article introducing legal system in Vietnam on website
of Tran. H. N. & Associates, legal system in Vietnam is
based on communist legal theory and French civil law, with major modifications and additions
from Marxist-Leninist ideology.
There are many similarities to the laws of former socialist countries, especially the former
Soviet Union. Still, some French influence also remains due to a long colonial period from the
19
th
into the mid 20

th
century.
From the end of the 80
ies
the Vietnamese legal system has undergone important changes
following the country's economic reform. Within only a few years, the National Assembly
enacted several laws and codes replacing decrees being the only legal basis for a long period.

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One important purport of the legislation in Vietnam is to cope with international standards in
order to promote international transactions from and into Vietnam.
However, Vietnamese law has not covered all fields of life or sometimes there is overlap
between the regulations of the laws. That is the reason why Vietnamese government is trying
hard to perfect Vietnamese legal system.

2.2.2. An overview of American legal system
According to Wikipedia - the online dictionary, the law of the United States was originally
largely derived from the common law of the system of English law, which was in force at the
time of the Revolutionary War. However, the supreme law of the land is the United States
Constitution and, under the Constitution's Supremacy Clause, laws enacted by Congress and
treaties to which the U.S. is a part of. These form the basis for federal laws under the federal
constitution in the United States, circumscribing the boundaries of the jurisdiction of federal
law and the laws in the fifty U.S. states and territories.
In the United States, the law is derived from four sources. These four sources are
constitutional law, administrative law, statutes, and the common law (which includes case
law). The most important source of law is the United States Constitution. All other law falls
under, and is subordinate to, that document. No law may contradict the United States
Constitution. For example, if Congress passes a statute that conflicts with the Constitution, the
Supreme Court may find that law unconstitutional.

Notably, a statute does not disappear automatically merely because it has been found
unconstitutional; it must be deleted by a subsequent statute. Many federal and state statutes
have remained on the books for decades after they were ruled to be unconstitutional. However,
under the principle of stare decisis, no sensible lower court will enforce an unconstitutional
statute, and any court that does so will be reversed by the Supreme Court.
Federal law in the United States originates with the Constitution, which gives Congress the
power to enact statutes for certain limited purposes like regulating commerce. Nearly all
statutes have been codified in the United States Code. Many statutes give executive branch
agencies the power to create regulations, which are published in the Federal Register and

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codified into the Code of Federal Regulations. Regulations generally also carry the force of
law under the Chevron doctrine. Many lawsuits turn on the meaning of a federal statute or
regulation, and judicial interpretations of such meaning carry legal force under the principle of
stare decisis.
The fifty American states are separate sovereigns with their own state constitutions and state
governments. They retain plenary power to make laws covering anything not preempted by
the federal Constitution, federal statutes, or international treaties ratified by the federal Senate.
2.3. The structure of Vietnamese and American courts
2.3.1. The structure of Vietnamese courts
According to website Vietnamese
court can be seen as the diagram below:

Vietnam's judicial bodies are the Supreme People's Court, the local People's Courts at the
provincial, district, and city levels, the military tribunals, and the People's Organs of Control.
It must be added that there is another name of The People’s Organ’s of Control, i.e. Supreme

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People’s Procuracy of Vietnam. Under special circumstances, such as showcase trials
involving breaches of national security, the National Assembly or the Council of State may set
up special tribunals.
The Supreme People's Court is the highest tribunal and is charged with the supervision of
subordinate courts. As a court of first instance, it tries cases involving high treason or other
crimes of a serious nature; and as the highest court of appeals, it reviews cases originating
with the lower courts. Appeals are infrequent, however, because lower courts tend to act as
final arbiters.
Local people's courts function at each administrative level except at the village level, where
members of the village administrative committees serve in a judicial capacity. Proceedings of
local courts are presided over by “hi thm nhân dân” (people's assessors). The tribunal panels
at the first instance are composed of both judges and people's assessors (usually one judge and
two people's assessors).
The Supreme People's Organs of Control function as watchdogs of the state and work
independently of all other government agencies, although they are nominally responsible to
the National Assembly.
A judging council, made up of a judge and one or more people's assessors (lay judges),
determines guilt or innocence and also passes sentence on the convicted. The relevant people's
council appoints people's jurors, who are required to have high moral standards but need not
have legal training.
2.3.2. The structure of American courts
American courts can be diagrammed as follows, according to website



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
The court system of the United States is more complex than that of Vietnam The Supreme
Court is the highest court of the United States, and the only one specifically created by the

Constitution. A decision of the Supreme Court cannot be appealed to any other court.
Article III of the Constitution states the basis for the federal court system: "The judicial Power
of the United States, shall be vested in one Supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the
Congress may from time to time ordain and establish."
THE FEDERAL COURT SYSTEM
With this guide, the first Congress divided the nation into districts and created federal courts
for each district. From that beginning has evolved the present structure: the Supreme Court, 13
courts of appeals, 94 district courts, and two courts of special jurisdiction. Congress today
retains the power to create and abolish federal courts, as well as to determine the number of
judges in the federal judiciary system. It cannot, however, abolish the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court
of the U.S.
Courts of Appeals -
- 12 Geographic-
based and one for
the Federal Circuit.

The U.S. Court of
Appeals for the
Federal Circuit
The Court of Military
Appeals
The 94 U.S.
District courts and
the specialized
courts, such as the
Tax Court
The Court of Federal
Claims, the Court of
Veterans Appeals, and

the Court of
International Trade.
The United States
Criminal Appeal Court
of Army, Navy,
Air Force, Marine
Corps, and Coast Guard
The court system of the United States
Federal problems
arising from states

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The power of the federal courts extends both to civil actions for damages and other redress,
and to criminal cases arising under federal law.
The Supreme Court has original jurisdiction in only two kinds of cases: those involving
foreign dignitaries and those in which a state is a party. All other cases reach the Court on
appeal from lower courts.
COURTS OF APPEALS AND DISTRICT COURTS
The second highest level of the federal judiciary is made up of the courts of appeals, created in
1891 to facilitate the disposition of cases and ease the burden on the Supreme Court. Congress
has established 12 regional circuit courts of appeal and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
Federal Circuit. The number of judges sitting on each of these courts varies considerably
(from 6 to 28), but most circuits have between 10 and 15 judges.
Below the courts of appeals are the district courts. The 50 states and U.S. territories are
divided into 94 districts so that litigants may have a trial within easy reach. Each district court
has at least two judges, many have several judges, and the most populous districts have more
than two dozen. Depending on case load, a judge from one district may temporarily sit in
another district. Congress fixes the boundaries of the districts according to population, size,
and volume of work. Some of the smaller states constitute a district by themselves, while the

larger states, such as New York, California, and Texas, have four districts each.
SPECIAL COURTS
In addition to the federal courts of general jurisdiction, it has been necessary from time to time
to set up courts for special purposes. These are known as "legislative" courts because they
were created by congressional action. Judges in these courts, like their peers in other federal
courts, are appointed for life terms by the president, with Senate approval.
Today, there are two special trial courts that have nationwide jurisdiction over certain types of
cases. The Court of International Trade addresses cases involving international trade and
customs issues. The U.S. Court of Federal Claims has jurisdiction over most claims for money
damages against the United States, disputes over federal contracts, unlawful "takings" of
private property by the federal government, and a variety of other claims against the United
States.

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STATE COURTS
In America, each state is free to adopt any organizational scheme it chooses, create as many
courts as it wishes, name those courts whatever it pleases, and establish their jurisdiction as it
sees fit.
The state courts may be divided into four general categories or levels: trial courts of limited
jurisdiction, trial courts of general jurisdiction, intermediate appellate courts, and courts of last
resort.
Chapter 3: Contrasting professional titles in legal systems of the United States and
Vietnam
3.1.1. Main titles in Vietnamese judiciary
Although the judiciary of Vietnam consists of two bodies, i.e. the People’s Court and the
Organ’s of Control, the system of titles is not complex. According to “The 2004 Civil
Procedures Code”, titles of the People’s Court consist of “chánh án, th$m phán, hi th$m
nhân dân, kim sát viên, lut s, th ký tòa án”. The power and duty of these titles are
defined in Vietnamese law like “The 2004 Civil Procedures Code” and “Law on lawyers”. We

will consider the roles of those titles in the following parts.
“chánh án”: According to “The 2004 Civil Procedures Code” , chief justice has the duty to
organize the work of resolution of legal procedures, make decisions assigning justices or
people’s jurors, court clerks. Chief justice also has the power to replace a judge, people’s
jurors or court clerk.
“th$m phán” has the power to prepare files of cases, make decisions summoning persons
participating in trials, participate in hearings trials.
“hi th$m nhân dân” have the duty to study files of cases prior to the commencement of a
trial. They also have the power to propose the chief justice or judge to issue necessary
decisions which fall under his or her authority. They participate in hearings of cases and vote
on issues.

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“kim sát viên” have the responsibility to supervise the compliance of judgements and
decisions of the court with law in trials. They also participate in civil cases and have the power
of prosecution in criminal cases.
“lut s”: According to “Law on lawyers”, lawyers can participate in legal proceedings as a
representative for the detained, charged or accused person, or the person protecting legitimate
rights and interests of the victim, civil plaintiff, civil defendant or the person who has rights
and interests in the criminal case. A lawyer can participate in legal proceedings as the person
representation or protecting legitimate rights and interests of the parties in civil, economic,
labor and administrative cases. They also can participate in arbitration proceedings, provide
legal advices to clients or act as a representative for clients to perform law-related works.
“th ký phiên tòa” has the duty to carry out the preparation for necessary professional
activities and prepare trial transcripts.
3.1.2. Main titles in American judicial branch
The North Carolina Wesleyan College’s website
offers a list of job titles related to the U.S. courts. However, not all jurisdictions may have
these positions, and most of them cannot be obtained by lateral entry simply with a college

degree (although some of them can). Here is the list:
Arbitrator, Assistant Administrator, Assistant Prosecutor, Background Investigator,
Bailiff, Bondsman, CJ Systems Planner, Court Clerk, Court Reporter, Courthouse Security,
Defense Attorney, Deputy Assistant, Diversion Specialist, Expert Witness, Grants
Administrator, Investigator, Judicial Assistant, Law Clerk, Lawyer, Legal Research, Manager,
Mediation Specialist, Paralegal, Parole Officer, Probation Officer, Process Server,
Sentencing Analyst, Victim Restitution
The website www.ncsonline.org offers a lot of jobs that relate to the court. Under each title,
there are specific positions. The number of sub-positions is very large. For example, under the
title Administrative Office of the Courts Administrators, there are State Court Administrator,
Deputy State Court Administrator, Regional Administrator, Legal Counsel, Judicial Conduct,

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Disciplinary Board Directors/Coordinators, Analysts Court, Services Information Technology
Administration, Finance Public Relations/Information, Administrative, Editor, Human
Resources.
Since there are a lot of titles related to the court, the paper only mentions main titles and they
will be contrasted with those in Vietnamese in terms of semantic field. The most basic titles
are: chief justice, judge, magistrate, juror, legal counsel, court attorney, attorney, court clerk
and prosecutor.
The role and duty of these titles are described specifically in websites of North Carolina
Wesleyan College and National Center of State Court.
“chief justice”: The Chief Justice’s role is to set the agenda for the weekly meetings where
the justices review the petitions for certiorari, to decide whether to hear or deny each case.
Power of the Chief Justice has significant influence over the direction of the court. The Chief
Justice also writes an annual report about the federal judiciary, which he or she presents to
Congress.
By virtue of his position, the Chief Justice is the chair of the Judicial Conference and the
Federal Judicial Center and oversees the Administrative Office of the U. S. Courts. These

organizations monitor different aspects of the federal judiciary. The Chief Justice is also
honored with a position on the board of the National Gallery of Art, the Smithsonian
Institution, and the Hirshorn Museum.
Each court in the federal system has a chief judge who, in addition to hearing cases, has
administrative responsibilities relating to the operation of the court. The chief judge is
normally the judge who has served on the court the longest.

“Magistrate” is actually a term refer to a kind of judge at district level. The role of magistrate
is to do legal research activities at the trial court level. The work of magistrate involves
considerable interpretation and judgment in the analysis of legal issues in administrative law
and the areas mentioned above. (S)he performs a variety of judicial duties in judicial system
including deciding the merits of cases, hearing and evaluating evidence and witness
credibility, analyzing laws and rules, making findings of fact and conclusions of law and

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issuing oral or written decisions and orders to resolve cases. (S)he also provides administrative
direction for the operation of a judicial division including supervisory accountability for
division staff, volunteers or interns.

“Judge”: Judge’s duty is to perform professional judicial duties in interpreting and applying
the local, state and federal laws and manage the activities of the operating of the court. (S)he
also presides over a variety of hearing including criminal misdemeanor and traffic
arraignments, driving and curfew arraignments, criminal non-jury trials, and pre-trial
conferences; Review requests for continuances; grant or deny requests.

“Counsel”: The duties of a counsel are to provide technical legal advice to managers,
supervisors and employees in order to avoid or minimize legal liability, to conduct legal
research, interprets laws, rulings, and regulations for clients. (S)he also has to prepares legal
briefs, develops strategy, arguments, and testimony in preparation for presentation of case.

“Attorney”: This position entails reviewing documentation, investigating information in
preparation for hearings, conducting hearings, and preparing reports, minutes, reviews and
legal memorandum. The attorney also has to analyze policies and procedures and draft
requested changes to rules and regulations. (S)he may have to conduct legal research; draft
presentments and committee reports; prosecute matters at disciplinary hearings; appear for
oral argument before the Supreme Court and prepare ethics. Additional duties will include the
preparation of the Annual Report; and assisting with staff support.

“Jury” and “Juror”: In the law, a jury is a body of citizens in a common law jurisdiction
which decides questions of fact in a legal case. The members of a jury are known as jurors.
In the US, the term can refer to a grand jury which issues an indictment or a petit jury which is
present at a trial. In the United States, England and Scotland, defendants in most serious
criminal cases have a right to trial by jury, although in practice most criminal actions in the
US are resolved by plea bargain.

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Juries are also used in many civil cases in the United States, and the United States Constitution
explicitly protects the right to a jury in civil as well as criminal cases. In criminal cases, the
right to a jury trial belongs to the defendant; if the defendant decides he or she is likely to do
better without a jury, the prosecution cannot insist on one.
The jurors then hear the cases presented by both the defense and prosecution, and in some
jurisdictions a summing-up from the judge. They then retire as a group to consider a verdict in
secret, which they must reach unanimously in US criminal cases. On the rare occasions when
no unanimous decision can be reached by the jury, a mistrial is declared, and the case must be
retried with a newly constituted jury.
“Prosecutor”: The prosecutor’s duty is presenting the case against an individual suspected of
breaking the law in a criminal trial. However, in the United States, “attorney” is often used in
stead of “prosecutor”.

“Court clerk”: The clerk maintains authority over financial performance, staffing, budgets,
and efficient caseload processing; monitors and performs procedures to ensure compliance
with statutory requirements, the needs of the Court, other criminal justice agencies, and the
public, consistent with sound management principles. In addition to management
responsibilities, the clerk often has to assist with direct customer service tasks as needed to
provide timely public service.

3.2. Contrasting professional titles in legal systems of the United States and
Vietnam
From the description process we have made, in the next part, we will contrast the most
prominent titles the judiciary of Vietnam and the United State one by one.

3.2.1. The position of judge
It can be said that there is great difference between English and Vietnamese in system of terms
denoting legal titles in English and Vietnamese.

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In Vietnamese legal system, for “judge” position, beside the term “thm phán”, there is one
synonym, i.e. “quan tòa”. According to Vietnamese dictionary, “quan tòa” means “a person
who hears cases in court”, and “it is a synonym of “thm phán””. Actually, “quan tòa” is often
used in the old days, nowadays it has colloquial meaning and often appears in articles or
reports, not in legal documents.
An example below will show us about the use of the two terms. The example is an extract of
an article on Vneconomy, an online newspaper:
“Khi quan tòa mt qun i kin
Ngày 25/6, bà Thm phán Judith Bartnoff ã ra bn án cui cùng i vi v kin l lùng
nht sut hai nm qua  M và thu hút s chú ý ln ca d lun: “Ch tim git i
Custom Cleaners không vi phm lut bo v ngi tiêu dùng ca thành ph.

Ông Roy Pearson, Thm phán Lut Hành chính  th ô Washington DC. gi qun  tim git
i Custom Cleaners nh sa. Qun tht lc. Vài ngày sau, ch tim a qun ra tr, Pearson
nói không phi qun ca ông và do kin. (…)”.

In the headline, the term “quan tòa” is used, however, in the article, the other word “thm
phán” is employed. The explanaion for the difference is that, the term in the headline is often
used colloquially and it has humorous sense when it is combined with other words “mt
qun”, thus it has the effect of attracting readers. The term “thm phán” is used twice in the
content of the article with a serious sense to denote a title in the courts of America.

In the language of judicial branch of the United States, we have at least three other words
denoting the same position as “thm phán”. Although the word “magistrate” is not very
common in America, it does exist and it denotes a judge at district level and he only solves
less serious cases. “Justice” is a synonym of “judge”, and it implies that judge is the one who
brings justice to the society. The word “jurist” is a hypernym of “judge”. According to
Websters-online dictionary, it has two meanings, i.e. a legal scholar versed in civil law or the
law of nations or a public official authorized to decide questions bought before a court of
justice.

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The official title of “magistrate” is "United States Magistrate Judge." A United States
Magistrate should be addressed orally and in writing, as "Judge _______," to be consistent
with the position's judicial role and official title as prescribed by law. Although some state
courts have a judicial officer called a "magistrate," that title as applied to a United States
Magistrate Judge is obsolete. To address these judges simply as "Magistrate" is akin to
improperly addressing a Lieutenant Colonel as "Lieutenant," or a Bankruptcy Judge as
"Bankruptcy."
According to website the difference between
the two terms “magistrate” and “judge” is that while “district judges are life-tenured judges

nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate, magistrate judges are fixed-term
judges appointed by district judges for eight-year renewable terms via a merit selection
process”.
Within guidelines set by the Congress, the judges in each district court establish the duties and
responsibilities of their magistrate judges. The legislation permits a magistrate judge, with the
consent of the involved parties, to conduct all proceedings in a jury or nonjury civil matter and
enter a judgment in the case and to conduct a trial of persons accused of misdemeanors (less
serious offenses than felonies) committed within the district, provided the defendants consent.
There are still many other words that have semantic relations with the two titles “magistrate”
and “judge”. For people that do not have knowledge of law, they may not fully understand the
differences of the meaning of “magistrate, jurist, justice” and “judge”. According to the
website , the four words have one common
meaning, i.e. to denote “an official authorized to decide questions bought before a court of
justice”. However, each word has its own aspects of meaning. The term “judge” can replace
the two words “magistrate” and “justice”. In fact, as we have known, “magistrate” in the
America is appointed by district judge and has limited power, only solve less serious criminal
and civil cases. The word “justice” has many other meanings beside to be the synonym of
“judge”. The term “jurist” denotes someone who studies, develops, applies or otherwise deals
with the law.


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We can analyse the four words semantically like this:
In
judicial
opinion
authority to
administer and
enforce law,

involved with
judiciary matters,
i.e. a justice of the
peace

Level of
administrative
working
Working in
specific
office
Popular
term in the
U.S.
Magistrate x x x x 0
Judge x x 0 0 x
Jurist x 0 0 0 x
Justice x x 0 x x

* In Vietnamese judiciary, the judge who has the highest power in the judiciary is called
“chánh án” and at all levels of courts (People's District Courts and the Supreme Court) the
head of the court is also called “chánh án”. However, in American judiciary, “chief justice” is
only used to denote the head person of the Supreme Court. Each court in the federal system
has a “chief judge” who, in addition to hearing cases, has administrative responsibilities
relating to the operation of the court. The chief judge is normally the judge who has served on
the court the longest. From the contrast, we can see the difference in the way the two system
name the head person of each court level
The term “chánh án” has a synonym, which is an old word called “Chng Lý”. Nowadays,
the term is not usually used in legal documents, it is often used in newspaper.
For example, the VOA news has an article that contains the term:

“Bom n ti Venezuela, sát hi phó Chng Lý Danilo Anderson.
Venezuela cho hay mt cuc tn công bng bom ã sát hi Phó Chng Lý Danilo Anderson
ca nc h.

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Hôm nay, các gii chc Venezuela ã nói vi ài Ting Nói Hoa K rng ã xác nh c
ch c ch n là xác ngi cháy en tìm thy trong chic xe chính là xác ca Phó Chng Lý
Anderson. (…).”
Concluding remarks: The term “judge” in American legal system is equivalent to “thm
phán” in Vietnamese. In Vietnamese, “thm phán” has one synonym, “quan tòa”, and they
have the same meaning in legal language. The only difference is that, the former is used
officially in legal document while the latter is an old word, and now its semantic meaning has
derived and often used in colloquial language. In American English, “judge” has three
synonyms, “magistrate, jurist” and “justice”. Among these words, only “magistrate” causes
problem for people to understand. It is a judge at district level and has limited power
compared with a “judge”.
In another words, it can be said that, the synonyms in Vietnamese has semantic difference
while those in English differ in functional nature denoted in law.
The term “chánh án” has one synonym, “chng lý”, which is an old word. Due to the
difference of the two legal systems, the term “chánh án” in Vietnamese is equivalent to “chief
justice” and “chief judge” in the United States.
3.2.2. The position of prosecutor
According to Wikipedia online dictionary, “prosecutor” is the chief legal representative of the
prosecution in countries. The prosecution is the legal party responsible for presenting the case
against an individual suspected of breaking the law in a criminal trial.
In the United States, the director of offices that are responsible for prosecution of charges may
be known by any of several names depending on the legal jurisdiction (e.g. County Attorney,
Prosecuting Attorney (in Michigan, Indian, and West Virginia), County Prosecutor, State
Attorney, State Prosecutor, Commonwealth’s Attorney (in Virginia and Kentucky), District

Attorney, District Attorney General (in Tennessee), City Attorney, City Prosecutor or U.S.
Attorney) and may be either appointed or elected. In order to be appointed prosecutor,
nominees must be lawyers.

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So in America, the term “prosecutor” has one synonym called “attorney”.
As we have mentioned in the previous part, in Vietnamese legal system, there is a separate
organ to initiate criminal cases and the officer who is responsible for the charges is called
“ki!m sát viên”. The term “ki!m sát viên” is sometimes translated as “procurator” and
sometimes as “prosecutor”.
According to Websters online dictionary, “procurator” is “a person authorized to act for
another”. However, there are still many documents employing the term “procurator” to denote
the person who has the power of prosecution. Thus, in my opinion, when we translate the term
“ki!m sát viên” into English, the two words “prosecutor” and “procurator” are acceptable.
Concluding remarks: The word “ki!m sát viên” in Vietnamese legal system is equivalent to
three words in American legal system, “prosecutor, procurator” and “attorney”
3.2.3. The position of lawyer
In Vietnam, “lut s” is a general term to denote people who give legal advice for people,
represent and other people in courts. However, gradually, there are other terms to denote
specific functions of lawyers. For example, there is an article named “Ngh lut s kinh
doanh  Vit Nam” on website which
requires that there should be other terms to call lawyers in Vietnam.
According to “T" i!n ting Vit”, the two words “thy cãi” and “trng s” are both obsolete
words, they are synonyms of “lut s”.
In Vietnamese modern society, the former is often used colloquially with ironical meaning.
For example, the term “thy cãi” is used in the title of the following article to pillory a man
who was a lawyer that did bad things.

“Hoãn phiên tòa xét x “thy cãi” Lê Bo Quc

Sáng 19/7, TAND t%nh Bình D&ng ã a ra xét x s& th$m v án Lê Bo Quc (nguyên lut
s Vn phòng Lut s Ba ình, Hà Ni) phm các ti: l'a o chim ot tài sn; lm dng

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tín nhim chim ot tài sn; trn kh(i n&i giam gi; a hi l; làm gi tài liu c& quan, t
chc và Lê c Tuân (tài x ca Quc) v ti “a hi l” (…)”.
(From website

The man named “Lê Bo Quc” is a lawyer, but he exploits the title to trick people, so he is
called “thy cãi”.
The second synonym, “trng s” now rarely appears in Vietnamese society.
For lay people, there is another term that may cause confusion for them, i.e. “lut gia”. They
may use the two terms “lut s” and “lut gia” interchangeably. According to “T" i!n ting
Vit” (1988), the former means people who defend other persons in court or give legal advice
and the latter means a person who study law. Thus, in some cases, “lut s” can be called “lut
gia”, but “lut gia” can not be used to denote “lut s”.
Nguyen, Tuyet Nhung (2006), in her article about the term “lut s” in Vietnamese, said that
we can classify “lawyer” in two ways, according to the functions of the lawyer and fields of
law in which the lawyer involves in . According to the functions of the lawyer, there are two
types, i.e. lawyers who give legal advice and lawyers who plead cases in court. Basing on the
fields of law that lawyers involve in, we have many types of lawyers, such as environmental
lawyer, family lawyer, commercial lawyer, intellectual property lawyer and for lay people, it
seems easy for them to understand as there are specific words to denote functions of the
lawyers.
In American English, for the word “attorney”, there is distinction between “attorney-in-fact”
and “attorney-at-law”. Wikipedia, the online dictionary, gives definitions of the two words as:
“An "attorney-in-fact" is akin to an agent who acts on behalf of another person, typically with
respect to business, property, or personal matters. Such an agent does not have to be licensed
to practice law and may not need to have any license at all. By contrast an attorney-at-law, or

lawyer, is a person trained and licensed by a relevant jurisdiction to practice law: to represent
clients in legal matters and to give legal advice. In the United States, the term attorney,
standing alone, generally refers to this meaning rather than "attorney-in-fact".”
There are many other synonyms of including "advocate," "lawyer," “barrister," "civil law
notary", "solicitor,” “advocator,” “counsel,” “counselor,” “counselor,” “counselor-at-law”.
However, the paper will only analyse the most common words that are often used in America

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and cause problems for language users, i.e. attorney, lawyer, barrister, solicitor, counsel, and
advocate.
If we distinguish the six words “attorney, lawyer, barrister, solicitor, counsel, advocate”
basing on the functions of lawyers, the result is that only “solicitor” does not plead case in
court.
Among the six terms, some of them are particularly popular language societies, for example,
“attorney” is often used in the United States, “solicitor and barrister” are used in England.
Beside one joint sense of meaning, the term “attorney” has another meaning in the United
States, i.e. it means “prosecutor”.
Here is the semantic analysis of the six terms:


Licensed by
the state,
give advice
and prepare
legal
document


Plead case

in court
Especially
popular in
the U.S.
Especially
popular use
in England
Especially
popular in
Scotland
Often work
for
company
Attorney x x x 0 0 0
Lawyer x x 0 0 0 0
Barrister x x 0 x 0 0
Solicitor x 0 0 x 0 0
Counsel x x x x 0 x
Advocate x x 0 0 x 0
Compared with English, the term “lut s” in Vietnamese does not have many synonyms to
denote specific fields that the lawyer specializes in, which is the result of relatively short
history of lawyer career in Vietnam. We will spend some time to consider lawyer profession
in the United States and. Vietnam.
According to website the training of
attorneys and the practice of law have evolved over time in the United States. Today
American lawyers practice in a variety of settings and circumstances.

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In the early days, during the colonial period in America (1607-1776), there were no law

schools to train those interested in the legal profession. After the American Revolution (1775-
83), the number of lawyers increased rapidly, because neither legal education nor admission to
the bar was very strict. The apprenticeship method continued to be the most popular way to
receive legal training, but law schools began to come into existence.
As the demand for lawyers increased during the late 1800s, there was a corresponding
acceleration in the creation of new law schools. In the 20th century, the number of people
wanting to study law increased dramatically. The number of lawyers in the United States has
increased steadily over the past half century and is currently estimated at more than 950,000.
America's lawyers apply their professional training in a variety of settings. Some
environments are more profitable and prestigious than others.
In Vietnam, according to Phan Huu Thu (2001), before 1930, French colonialists did not allow
Vietnamese people to work as lawyers. On 25 May 1930, the colonialist issued a decree to
establish lawyer association and Vietnamese people were allowed to join in. During war time,
there were not much opportunities for lawyer career to develop. There are three landmarks for
the development of lawyer career in Vietnam, i.e. the law on lawyer issued in 1987, 2001 and
2007. According to an article “WTO membership illuminates weakness of local lawyers” on
website the country currently has 819
organisations offering legal services, 149 branches and 653 law offices. The numbers fall well
short of actual need. Lawyers mainly work in large cities, while mountainous provinces like
Dien Bien and Lai Chau have far too few lawyers to even establish their bar associations.
According to the report, the ability of these lawyers falls short of the requirements of judicial
reforms and international economic integration. Other weaknesses in an unclear and
incompetent legal system, the lack of lawyers specialized in the fields of investment, business,
and trade, as well as the inability to work with court procedures is pose serious problems for
Vietnamese lawyers.