J.D. – What’s up with that?

July 10th, 2009. By AbiK

From time to time, we’ll be posting a column called, “Pleading Ignorance“. No, it’s not to be taken literally—it’s more of a commentary on how much jargon and legalese there is in the field of law. So much so that it can be pretty off-putting, let alone just downright hard to understand. And who the heck took 8 years of Latin anyway? (oh yeah, I did—but that’s another story).

Today’s Pleading Ignorance is actually compliments of one of our Twitter followers, who asks:

Is it a Juris Doctor or Doctorate?

It’s a great question—and here’s the answer:

A J.D. is a Juris Doctor. It’s the degree awarded to someone who completes formal legal studies at an American law school.

“Juris Doctor” is actually Latin, not English—which is why it’s a little confusing. It’s not often that a word in Latin is exactly the same as a word in modern English–example: the Latin word for boy is “puer”. Go figure. So it’s easy to think J.D. is actually Juris Doctorate. But in Latin, “doctor” (doctor, -oris) means teacher. And the “juris” is from the Latin word for law (iur, iuris—the “i” is often seen as a “j”). “Juris” is the genitive case—or possessive case—of the root word “iur”; so to properly translate “juris doctor” into English, it becomes “teacher of law” or “law teacher”.

Sometimes you’ll see “Doctor of Jurisprudence”, an English spin on the Latin “Juris Doctor”. It can certainly sound a little persnickety or at the very least put your brain on an endless loop of the Beatles’ “Dear Prudence”. But, hey, “Jurisprudence” is just a fancy word for “science of law”—or simply synonymous with “law”. And just for kicks, the “juris” part is again from the Latin, “iuris” for law; the “prudence” part is from the Latin, “prudens”, meaning “wisdom”. 

Tags: Pleading Ignorance

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