5.1 Boyd & Walbaum Robinson
Michael S. Boyd and Isabel A. Walbaum Robinson. (2015). Text Commenting in Mediatised Legal Discourse: Evaluating Reader Understanding of (International) Criminal Law. International Journal of Law, Language & Discourse 5(1), 1-37.
Abstract: The post-modern court culture in civil litigation is based on communication and interaction between the parties and the judge. There has been a radical change from the adjudication, ideals of material law and a substantively correct judgment towards the ideal of negotiated law and pragmatically acceptable compromise. Currently, the most important function in the adjudication is that the contextual decisions, which the parties are satisfied with, are produced through fair proceedings. There has even been a change from the formal justice towards a perceived procedural justice and from the judicial power towards court service. In achieving these aims, communication and interaction of judges and parties are the most important tools. From this point of view, the language and the linguistic rights play currently a very significant role in the current civil procedural court culture. At the same time, the free movement guaranteed by EU, the global phenomenon of immigration and the refugee problems are current worldwide issues. The linguistic context is complex and multilingualisation has become a commonplace. The current question is how these challenges can be met? In this article, we shall exam the bilingual system in civil proceedings in Finland and in Italy.
Keywords: Linguistic minorities, linguistic legal rights, factual linguistic situation, Finnish Law, Italian Law, international regulation, civil litigation
Category: Volume 5
