Sentencing remarks as a legal subgenre: 'R v Darren Osborne'

Abstract

In the common law system, sentencing remarks are a legal subgenre where, once the verdict has been rendered by a jury, judges present the reasons for the sentence imposed. From the linguistic point of view, both the medium (oral) and the addressees (offenders, but also society) make these texts extremely attractive, as an instance of expert-lay communication, which combines clarity with rhetoric and persuasion. In our study, we shall analyse the sentencing remarks subgenre with a special focus on R v Osborne, a terrorist case where religious hatred was an important component and the judge was perfectly aware that the audience was not only the accused or the victims, but society at large. The result of our analysis will be a characterization of the sentencing remarks as a defined subgenre, both concerning textual moves and, most importantly, the stylistic devices deployed.