English as common legal language: Its expansion and the effects on civil law and common law lawyers

English has become the common language in a globalized legal world. However, the far-reaching consequences of the domination of key areas of the international practice of law by legal English are not yet fully understood and analysed. This article is concerned with an analysis of the expansion of legal English in global legal practice. This area has also been described as the ‘Law Market’, i.e. the area of activities of global lawyers in coping with the regulatory and legal frameworks in which international businesses function.’2 Much of the existing research into legal English as a common language is concerned with the development of legal English as a vehicle language for non-native English speakers in the sense of a lingua franca.3 The discussion is divided into either promoting the use of legal English as global language4 or pointing to its limitations ‘in that its legal terminology is premised on the tools of the (minority) common law system’5. This article aims to assess the interface and dynamics between lawyers using legal English as a common language as well as foreign languages in their legal work. This includes lawyers trained in the common law and/or civil law. Its aim is to gain a better understanding of global lawyering and communication in law and business relationships and to develop strategies for the internationalization of legal education and training in the UK

English as common legal language: Its expansion and the effects on civil law and common law lawyers

English has become the common language in a globalized legal world. However, the far-reaching consequences of the domination of key areas of the international practice of law by legal English are not yet fully understood and analysed. This article is concerned with an analysis of the expansion of legal English in global legal practice. This area has also been described as the ‘Law Market’, i.e. the area of activities of global lawyers in coping with the regulatory and legal frameworks in which international businesses function.’2 Much of the existing research into legal English as a common language is concerned with the development of legal English as a vehicle language for non-native English speakers in the sense of a lingua franca.3 The discussion is divided into either promoting the use of legal English as global language4 or pointing to its limitations ‘in that its legal terminology is premised on the tools of the (minority) common law system’5. This article aims to assess the interface and dynamics between lawyers using legal English as a common language as well as foreign languages in their legal work. This includes lawyers trained in the common law and/or civil law. Its aim is to gain a better understanding of global lawyering and communication in law and business relationships and to develop strategies for the internationalization of legal education and training in the UK

PROFILOWANIE PRAWNO-JĘZYKOWE W OSADZENIU INSTYTUCJONALNYM – NA PRZYKŁADZIE PRACOWNICZYCH ORGANÓW PRZEDSTAWICIELSKICH W UE

This paper applies a structured legal-linguistic profiling approach to EU “staff representation bodies” as a way to access domains that lie behind the public face of EU institutions and their texts concerning translation, language and terminology. The study commences with a legal-linguistic analysis of EU texts for references to “staff”, “staff representation” and “employment” in order to identify specific texts and bodies of relevance to the study. This approach leads to two broad categories: staff committees and trade unions. Information is sought from EU institutions about these bodies and their translation and language arrangements, and a list is made of websites available to the general public. These sites are then examined as part of the legal-linguistic profiling approach.W niniejszym artykule zastosowano ustrukturyzowane podejście do profilowania prawno-językowego do „unijnych organów reprezentujących pracowników” jako sposobu dostępu do obszarów poza oficjalnym obliczem instytucji UE oraz ich tekstów dotyczących tłumaczeń, języka i terminologii. Badanie rozpoczyna się od analizy prawno-językowej tekstów UE pod kątem odniesień do „pracowników”, „reprezentacji pracowników” i „zatrudnienia” w celu zidentyfikowania konkretnych tekstów i organów mających znaczenie dla badania. Takie podejście prowadzi do dwóch kategorii, ujmowanych szeroko: komitetów pracowniczych i związków zawodowych. Instytucje UE poszukują informacji na temat tych organów oraz ich tłumaczeń i ustaleń językowych. Sporządzono także listę stron internetowych dostępnych dla ogółu społeczeństwa, które następnie są badane w ramach profilowania prawno-językowego

Plurilingual treaties: aspects of interpretation

The chapter explores the historical background to plurilingual treaty-making as well as the practice of the PCIJ and ICJ to the interpretation of plurilingual treaties. The chapter includes a detailed examination of Article 33 of the Vienna Convention of the Law of Treaties and the effect of this article on ICJ practice

Supporting public decision making in policy deliberations: An ontological approach

This is the post-print version of the Paper. The official published version can be accessed from the link below - Copyright @ 2011 SpringerSupporting public decision making in policy deliberations has been a key objective of eParticipation which is an emerging area of eGovernment. EParticipation aims to enhance citizen involvement in public governance activities through the use of information and communication technologies. An innovative approach towards this objective is exploiting the potentials of semantic web technologies centred on conceptual knowledge models in the form of ontologies. Ontologies are generally defined as explicit human and computer shared views on the world of particular domains. In this paper, the potentials and benefits of using ontologies for policy deliberation processes are discussed. Previous work is then extended and synthesised to develop a deliberation ontology. The ontology aims to define the necessary semantics in order to structure and interrelate the stages and various activities of deliberation processes with legal information, participant stakeholders and their associated arguments. The practical implications of the proposed framework are illustrated.This work is funded by the European Commission under the 2006/1 eParticipation call

Official vs. Applied Multilingualism: Comparative Study of the Language Regimes and Legal Systems of Ethiopia and the European Union

This thesis investigates the practical application of laws governing official multilingualism in the Ethiopian legal system. Using functionalism as a legal research method, it compares the Ethiopian language regime with that of the European Union (EU) to explore how each system manages linguistic diversity. Despite significant differences, the laws governing official multilingualism in both systems serve the shared objective of determining the officially recognized languages, prescribing the languages used in lawmaking procedures, and specifying the authority granted to each language version of a law when interpreted by the courts. The EU language regime is characterized by strong legal multilingualism, where all language versions are considered equally authentic. In contrast, Ethiopia's system is categorized as reflecting weak legal multilingualism, primarily because it grants precedence to the Amharic version over the English version of laws in case of discrepancies. Despite these differences, the research uncovers, in both systems, a tension between ensuring the equality of languages and addressing practical concerns in the laws governing official language use. Legal translation also plays a significant role in drafting multilingual laws in both systems, which is demonstrated by the role of EU-English in the EU legislative process and the two-way translation of laws between English and Amharic in the Ethiopian federal legislative process. Finally, the study shows that linguistic divergences between different language versions of a law, inherent in both systems of strong and weak legal multilingualism, pose a challenge while also offering an opportunity to facilitate the interpretation of multilingual legal texts. The research lays the base for future studies on language and law in Ethiopia. It also informs legal translators and judges about the complexities in resolving translation problems in multilingual legal contexts