Quid Pro What?: The Unique and Consequential Language of Law
<p>The first impeachment trial US President Donald Trump hinged largely on whether he held out military aid to Ukraine as a bargaining chip to get his counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate the son of his rival Joe Biden. In other words, was he offering a <em>quid pro quo</em>? For weeks in early 2020, the most important question in the world was the proper interpretation of one phrase in a dead language that has been fossilised in law for thousands of years.</p>
<p>Several phrases in Latin, French, or archaic English are still used today, generally gratuitously by people keen to show off their erudition. But in law, they have serious weight. Every day, judges decide defendants’ fates based on whether they did something with “malice aforethought” or <em>mens rea</em>.</p>
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