Recent work (Le and Machin 2023) has demonstrated the fruitfulness of applying critical discourse studies to the language of the law. This presentation considers specifically how public policy analysis may be integrated into this larger body of research. Traditional models of public policy-making usually identify between three and five main stages in the life-cycle of public policy; problem-framing and agenda-setting, policy formulation and decision-making, socialization and implementation, and monitoring and evaluation (Knill and Tosun 2020). In the critical discursive analysis of legal texts, these stages can be mapped on to three conceptual ‘moments’ in a stance-taking event: the initial stance orientation, subsequent dis/alignment(s), and the stance follow (Jaffe 2009). By investigating the stance orientations in the genealogy of toponymy legislation in Timor-Leste (Neller 2023), this presentation shows how understanding public policy contributes to enriching critical discourse studies of the language of law. The contextual framework of both the life cycle of public policy and stance-taking sheds light on the weight of lingering ideological artifacts in Timorese policymaking and the ideological shifts evident in the legal code as Timor-Leste seeks to define itself in the future.