Language courses have a long tradition in the modern history of the Faculty of Law of Charles University, as they were first introduced in the academic year 1950/1951. Most courses focus on specialised legal language, including the obligatory common foundation subjects. Students may choose Legal English, Legal French, Legal German, or Legal Spanish. The four-semester seminar is targeted specifically at acquiring professional receptive and productive skills in legal communication.

Students may also enrol in the above subjects as a Second Foreign Language, where the choice includes additional languages such as Legal Italian and Legal Russian. The Department also provides specialised courses in German, Latin for Lawyers, or Chinese classes.

There are two specialization modules offered by the Department: (a) the Lawyering Skills Module with nine skills-based subjects taught in English and (b) Grundlagen des deutschen Rechts with seven subjects taught in German.

The Department of Foreign Languages is also involved in specialised lifelong learning courses, including for example the Complementary in Legal Translation, which was first opened in 1997. It also collaborates with other Czech universities and institutions, including the Czech Judicial Academy and the Chamber of Court-Appointed Interpreters and Translators of the Czech Republic. Last but not least, our work includes publishing specialised textbooks and bilingual legal dictionaries.

Czech in Law