Approaching the Bench : Teaching Magistrates and Judges how to Work Effectively with Interpreters

Reports about judicial misunderstandings of the interpreting process are common (Berk-Seligson 2008; Morris 2010; Hale 2011a). The misconception that interpreters ?just translate? from one language to another by swapping individual words from language A to language B in a mechanical, uncomplicated way, is still prevalent among some legal professionals. Research into court interpreting, however, has highlighted the complexities involved in attempting to achieve a pragmatically accurate rendition in conditions that are usually less than adequate (Hale 2004; Mikkelson 2008; Hale & Stern 2011). In order for court interpreting to be successful, all parties must be aware of its challenges and share the responsibility for effective communication (Ozolins & Hale 2009). This chapter will describe the contents and structure of a workshop designed and delivered by the author to Australian magistrates, judges and tribunal members on how to work effectively with interpreters, for over ten years. It will further discuss the positive concrete outcomes achieved through the raising of awareness among the judiciary about the importance of interpreters in the legal system

Sharing the responsibility for interpreting quality

La calidad de la interpretación es quizás uno de los temas más estudiados en el campo de la interpretación de conferencias. Los dos principales enfoques que han sido utilizados para evaluar la calidad han sido: por un lado, la percepción de los usuarios y por el otro la comparación analítica del mensaje original con el mensaje traducido (Reithofer, 2013). A pesar de que algunos estudios han investigado los diferentes factores que pueden afectar el rendimiento del intérprete (ver por ejemplo Pöchhacker, 1994; Cooper et al. 1982; van Besien & Meuleman, 2004), hasta el momento no se ha examinado el grado en que los usuarios/oradores perciben el impacto directo que ellos mismos pueden tener en el rendimiento del intéprete, y la responsabilidad que comparten respecto de la calidad de la interpretación. El presente estudio intenta en moderada medida cerrar esa brecha en el conocimiento en cuanto a la relación entre la calidad de la interpretación y la responsabilidad de los oradores, por medio de la investigación de: (a) el conocimiento de un grupo de delegados sobre las necesidades del intérprete a la hora de interpretar y el grado de conciencia sobre su influencia directa en la calidad de la interpretación, y (b) las opiniones de un grupo de intérpretes respecto de cómo son percibidos por los mismos delegados, en las reuniones anuales de la Comisión para la Conservación de Recursos Vivos Marinos (CCRVMA)

Deaf citizens as jurors in Australian courts: Participating via professional interpreters

Australian deaf citizens are currently not permitted to perform jury duty, primarily due to their inability to hear the evidence and deliberate without interpreters. Although interpreters are routinely employed to interpret for defendants or witnesses in court, current legal frameworks do not permit interpreters to enter the deliberation room as a ‘thirteenth person’, for fear that they may influence the jurors or become active participants in the decision-making. Other objections to allowing deaf citizens to act as jurors include uncertainty about their ability to participate fully in the discussions, the impact the deaf juror’s and interpreter’s presence mayhave on the dynamics of the deliberations and on turn-taking, and the logistics and cost involved. Yet, deaf citizens see it as their right to be able to perform this very important civic duty, and recent decisions at the international level indicate that excluding deaf citizens from jury duty should be considered unlawful discrimination.This article presents results from the analysis of the jury deliberations with one deaf juror and two Auslan1 interpreters, and from a focus group discussion with the eleven hearing jurors and an interview with the deaf juror about their experience.The jury deliberation is one section of a large-scale study on the participation of deaf jurors in a criminal trial with Auslan interpreters, in New South Wales

An eye-movement analysis of overt visual attention during consecutive and simultaneous interpreting modes in a remotely interpreted investigative interview

Remote interpreting via video-link is increasingly being employed in investigative interviews chiefly due to its apparent increased accessibility and efficiency. However, risks of miscommunication have been shown to be magnified in remote interpreting and empirical research specifically on video-link remote interpreting is in its infancy which greatly limits the evidence base available to inform and direct evidence-based policy and best practice, particularly in the identification of the optimal mode(s) of interpreting to be used, namely consecutive and simultaneous. Consecutive interpreting refers to a process in which the interpreter transfers short segments of speech from one language into the other as each person speaks in managed turn-taking, while simultaneous interpreting refers to the transfer of natural speech from one language into another in a concurrent manner without the need for speakers to segment their speech. This study provides novel empirical evidence by using eye tracking to compare the overt visual attention of interpreters working in a remote setting in which an English-speaking Interviewer interacts with a non-English-speaking Suspect in person, for whom interpretation is provided via video-link in real time. Using a within-subject design, we analyse eye-movement data from 28 professionally accredited interpreters who interpreted via video-link an investigative interview in which consecutive and simultaneous interpreting modes were counterbalanced. Taking interpreting performance into account, our results showed that, the consecutive mode yielded significantly less gaze time and therefore significantly less on-screen overt visual attention due to off-screen notetaking, an essential component of the consecutive interpreting mode. Relative to gaze time, the consecutive mode also resulted in significantly more and longer fixations and shifts of attention. Participants also allocated significantly more overt visual attention to the Interviewer than the Suspect, particularly in the consecutive mode. Furthermore, we found informative significant correlations between eye tracking measures and interpreting performance: accuracy, verbal rapport, and management. Finally, we found no significant differences between the three language pairs tested. We conclude with a discussion of limitations and the contributions of the study and an outline for future work on this topic of growing importance

Analytical and numerical treatment of oscillatory mixed differential equations with differentiable delays and advances

NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Journal of computational and applied mathematics. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Journal of computational and applied mathematics, 235(2011), doi: 10.1016/j.cam.2011.04.041This article discusses the oscillatory behaviour of the differential equation of mixed type

The Power of Feminist Judgments?

Recent years have seen the advent of two feminist judgment-writing projects, the Women’s Court of Canada, and the Feminist Judgments Project in England. This article analyses these projects in light of Carol Smart’s feminist critique of law and legal reform and her proposed feminist strategies in Feminism and the Power of Law (1989). At the same time, it reflects on Smart’s arguments 20 years after their first publication and considers the extent to which feminist judgment-writing projects may reinforce or trouble her conclusions. It argues that both of these results are discernible—that while some of Smart’s contentions have proved to be unsustainable, others remain salient and have both inspired and hold important cautions for feminist judgment-writing projects

Changing the International Justice Landscape: Perspectives on Deaf Citizenship and Jury Service

In Australia and other countries with adversarial court systems, such as Ireland and the United Kingdom, deaf people have not typically been permitted to serve as jurors because of a prohibition against having a sign language interpreter in the jury room. The United States is one country where there is an exception in that deaf people frequently serve as jurors in several states. We know that deaf people can understand courtroom discourse via sign language interpreters, but there has been no evidence as to how deaf people can participate in the jury deliberation process, or the impact of having a sign language interpreter present as “stranger” in the jury room. This had never been tested until this study, funded by the Australian Research [End Page 240] Council Linkage Program scheme, which is the first of its kind internationally to investigate whether deaf people can realistically participate as a juror in a trial and in the jury deliberation process. The project took the form of a simulated mock trial in a district court in Sydney with: a real jury; real police informants; current practicing lawyers; and a recently retired judge of the court. The results of this project will demonstrate whether the prohibition of a stranger (i.e., a sign language interpreter) in the jury room should be overturned. It will also explore the extent to which a deaf person can participate in jury deliberations via sign language interpretation, and how this study will pioneer domestic and international law reform. This article will: briefly track the prior research that led to this study and the current case law affecting the area; share the results of interviews with mock-trial participants and the stakeholder focus groups on their perspectives on the feasibility of deaf people serving as jurors; and present recommendations for the inclusion of deaf people as jurors

Comparative embryotoxicity of a pentabrominated diphenyl ether mixture to common terns (\u3ci\u3eSterna hirundo\u3c/i\u3e) and American kestrels (\u3ci\u3eFalco sparverius\u3c/i\u3e)

Concentrations of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in Forster’s tern (Sterna forsteri) eggs from San Francisco Bay have been reported to range up to 63 µg g-1 lipid weight. This value exceeds the lowest-observed-adverse-effect level (1.8 µg g-1 egg wet weight; ~32 µg g-1 lipid weight) reported in an embryotoxicity study with American kestrels (Falco sparverius). As a surrogate for Forster’s terns, common tern (Sterna hirundo) eggs were treated by air cell injection with corn oil vehicle (control) or a commercial penta-BDE formulation (DE-71) at nominal concentrations of 0.2, 2, and 20 µg g-1 egg. As a positive control, kestrel eggs received vehicle or 20 µg DE-71 g-1 egg. In terns, there were no effects of DE-71 on embryonic survival, and pipping or hatching success; however, treated eggs hatched later (0.44 d) than controls. Organ weights, organ-to-body weight ratios, and bone lengths did not differ, and histopathological observations were unremarkable. Several measures of hepatic oxidative stress in hatchling terns were not affected by DE-71, although there was some evidence of oxidative DNA damage (8-hydroxy-deoxyguanosine; 8-OH-dG). Although DE-71 did not impair pipping and hatching of kestrels, it did result in a delay in hatch, shorter humerus length, and reduced total thyroid weight. Concentrations of oxidized glutathione, reduced glutathione, thiobarbituric acid reactive substances, and 8-OH-dG in liver were greater in DE-71-treated kestrels compared to controls. Our findings suggest common tern embryos, and perhaps other tern species, are less sensitive to PBDEs than kestrel embryos