Drawing on some of the topics and discussions covered in the 2nd International Conference (10-11-12 May 2012), this third symposium seeks to expand on the relationship between law and language by exploring the role of legal discourse in a wide array of social/institutional settings, where it is an integral and constitutive part of the ‘social practices’ manifested in different languages, cultures and societies. The understanding of legal discourses and practices includes not only the legal rules, institutions, and processes constructed as part of social structures and systems, but also their impact on other diverse social categories and values where the agency of language-discourse is involved in various aspects of social life. This broad understanding provides the analytical framework for a socio-critical interpretation and application of legal discourse practices and procedures relevant to the forms that legal language assumes in a variety of social realities and contexts.