Title: Legal English Usage Research: pruden
1See http//ec.hku.hk/lawvocab/ for sample legal
usage presentations Example 1 Presenting a
legal-academic term Sample annotated 6-slide
Student PowerPoint Presentation of a legal term
selected for research in the Legal Vocabulary
database and Concordancer April, 2006 - This
offers a basic idea of what students should aim at
Legal English Usage Research- pruden -
2Prudent (adjective)
Open with a profile of the target term, use an
authentic case example cite the case name as
below.
..etc.
i.e. opposite
3Word after collocations man, employer, owner
First, find out WHO is usually required to be
prudent adj. noun
- The test is what precautions would the ordinary,
reasonable and prudent man take? Paris v
Stepney Borough - it is often impossible to adduce evidence of what
care an ordinarily prudent employer would take
Paris v Stepney Borough - The ordinarily prudent owner of a dog does not
keep his dog always on a lead on a country
highway for fear it may cause injury to a passing
motor cyclist Bolton v Stone
4Word before collocations- show how prudent
collocates in tort
The frequency tells us which forms are more
common so useful to learn
- an ordinarily prudent person 9 matches vs
- the ordinary prudent person 5 matches
- Similarly
- a reasonably prudent person 3 matches
- a reasonable prudent man 3 matchesbut notice.
- a reasonable and prudent man 10 matches
- - so reasonable ? prudent, these are more
commonly found in combination
5Perhaps show how your got the 10 matches
6Standard of care prudent man/employerwould
for both principle application
- Principle from Paris v Stepney Borough (1951)
- The standard of care which the law demands is the
care which an ordinarily prudent employer would
take in all the circumstances Paris v Stepney
Borough - Application from Paris v Stepney Borough (1951)
- In the present case the question is whether an
ordinarily prudent employer would supply goggles
to a one-eyed workman whose job was to knock
bolts out of a chassis with a steel hammer while
etc
7Prudence other forms
Offering the noun form adds nothing - its less
common the meaning does not emerge from the
examples
- Contributory Negligence
- As in England so in Hong Kong a man of ordinary
prudence travelling in a motor car would take the
precaution of wearing a seat-belt where one is
available Ho Wing Cheung - Are we prepared to say that a man of ordinary
prudence in Hong Kong would act differently, in
relation to the wearing of seat belts, to his
counterpart in England? Ho Wing Cheung