A Handbook On Legal Languages And The Quest For Linguistic Equality In South Africa And Beyond

A Handbook on Legal Languages and the Quest for Linguistic Equality in South Africa and Beyond is an interdisciplinary publication located in the discipline of forensic linguistics/ language and law. This handbook includes varying comparative African and global case studies on the use of language(s) in courtroom discourse and higher education institutions: Kenya; Morocco; Nigeria; Australia; Belgium Canada and India. These African and global case studies form the backdrop for the critique of the monolingual English language of record policy for South African courts, the core of this handbook, discussed in relation to case law and the beleaguered legal interpretation profession. This handbook argues that linguistic transformation and decolonisation of South Africa’s legal and higher education systems needs to be undertaken where legal practitioners are linguistically equipped to litigate in a bilingual/ multilingual courtroom that enables access to justice for the majority of African language speaking litigants, enforcing their constitutional language rights.

Language and the Law: Global Perspectives in Forensic Linguistics from Africa and beyond is the third volume in a series of books designed to contribute and respond to growing interest in forensic linguistics or language and the law on the African continent. Drawing mostly on contexts where traditional African laws and Western laws are practised side-by-side, and where there are discontinuities between local knowledge systems, belief systems and language practices on the one hand, and official languages of law discourse, conceptualisation and jurisprudence documentation on the other, the chapters in this volume problematise, among other issues, the mediation practices (or lack thereof) of language and legal processes, discourse strategies and complexities in (mis)interpretations in second language court contexts and the miscarriage of justice that these may entail.

A Handbook on Legal Languages and the Quest for Linguistic Equality in South Africa and Beyond is an interdisciplinary publication located in the discipline of forensic linguistics/ language and law. This handbook includes varying comparative African and global case studies on the use of language(s) in courtroom discourse and higher education institutions: Kenya; Morocco; Nigeria; Australia; Belgium Canada and India. These African and global case studies form the backdrop for the critique of the monolingual English language of record policy for South African courts, the core of this handbook, discussed in relation to case law and the beleaguered legal interpretation profession. This handbook argues that linguistic transformation and decolonisation of South Africa’s legal and higher education systems needs to be undertaken where legal practitioners are linguistically equipped to litigate in a bilingual/ multilingual courtroom that enables access to justice for the majority of African language speaking litigants, enforcing their constitutional language rights.

The research represented in this volume, and in the series as a whole, is intended to provide critical analyses and findings that can underpin the development of language policies, practice guides and other resources that support a fair and accessible legal system. However, this will also require well-developed teaching and research programmes, so it is our intention that this volume will continue to support the growth of forensic linguistics in Southern African universities and nurture the next generation of scholars dedicated to forensic and legal linguistics. This aim will be supported by the newly formed African Association of Forensic and Legal Linguists (AAFLL), which will help to coordinate the study of forensic linguistics in Africa. This book series, Studies in Forensic and Legal Linguistics in Africa and Beyond, Volumes I, II, III and IV, continues to play an important role in bringing African forensic linguistic scholarship to a wider audience, while simultaneously promoting the field amongst academic and legal institutions in Africa.

This Research Handbook offers a comprehensive study of jurilinguistics that not only presents the latest international research findings among academics and practitioners, but also provides a new approach to the phenomena and nature of communicative flexibility, legal genres, vulnerability of interlingual legal communication, and the cultural landscape of legal translation.

This book examines the best language fair trial practices of the courts in arguably the most multilingual region of the world. It contains an instructive list of standards and approaches to linguistic dynamics, which may be considered a language fair trial rights code. By way of jurisprudential analysis and scrutiny of constitutional imperatives and examination of legislation among the respective jurisdictions from the Sahel region, to the Horn of Africa, and the Cape, this publication presents peculiar country-specific practices and common standards aiming towards the realisation of a fair trial in a multilingual context. The exceptionally multilingual nature of legal processes in Africa makes the standards in the region instructive in the progression towards a universal language fair trial rights code. The book reveals valuable lessons across jurisdictions, including those outside Africa, and suggests measures that may be taken to improve existing approaches. It will be a valuable resource for academics, researchers, and policy-makers working in the areas of Law and Language, Legal Linguistics, Forensic Linguistics, Criminal Justice, and Comparative Law.

"The use of African indigenous languages has, for a very long time, been proscribed within the academy. The South African Constitution articulates the imperative to develop these languages in order to treat all official languages equally and to achieve parity of esteem between English and the African indigenous languages. This is critical in order to reverse the legacy of colonialism and apartheid which, wrongly, viewed African indigenous languages as shallow and inadequate. The transition to a democratic society would therefore not be complete without the revival of African heritage, language and identity. This glossary is based on the premise that the South African Constitution is one founded on tolerance and the acknowledgement of the multiple cultural, linguistic and ethnic groups that make up our diverse society. The teaching of law and administration of justice are enhanced if the law made for the people is also available in the languages of those people. This Glossary is thus a first step towards the elevation of African languages in legal education and the practice of law. The book is designed to assist students doing legal studies as well as ordinary South Africans with a limited understanding of law, by providing them with basic explanations of legal terms in both isiZulu and English. It will also be of great value to districts located in the rural areas, where magistrates encounter litigants that only have a command of indigenous languages."--Back cover.

What will eventually be decided about language policy in South Africa? Will English eventually become the official language of communication? At the Third International Conference on Language Law in April 1992, a number of themes were addressed, inter alia language and law; theory and practice; language rights and human rights; language and law in the African and South African context; language and empowerment; a language policy for the South African situation; and language contact, conflict, coexistence and cooperation.