US / UK differences

Legal English may contain some terms that differ between the USA and UK either in spelling (for example "defence"(UK) and "defense"(US) or usage, words which are only used in one of the jurisdictions like "larceny" - which is replaced with "theft" in the UK, and words which are used in both countries but have different meanings... for example when an American says "stocks" he may mean what a British person would call "shares", stock in British English probably means the goods kept in a shop or in a merchant's store. see http://www.translegal.com/great-divide for more on vocabulary On the differences between the American and British legal systems listen to this discussion  recorded at Georgetown University, between Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (U.S. Supreme Court) and Baroness Hale (the first woman to become a "Lord of Appeal in Ordinary" in 2004.)