Symposium: Interplay between Linguistics, Paralinguistics and the Administration of International Criminal Justice

The Symposium aims to promote interdisciplinary discussions and investigations into linguistic as well as paralinguistic causes and corresponding legal effects of defective interpretations and translations in international war crimes trials. The quality of these trials and the accuracy of historical records they produce are compromised by inconsistent standards and practices relating to language services adopted by international courts and tribunals, including the ICC. Pre-trial and trial interpretation and translation errors and omissions, which derive from differences between first/original languages and official court languages into which they are translated, can result in inaccurate interpretations and unintended meanings. This in turn can alter original meanings and lead to misleading interpretations of probative evidence, affecting the right to a fair trial. The responsibility to fully explore reasons and conditions that may lead to procedurally and ethically unjust trial outcomes rests on the judiciary.

Venue and Location: School of Law and The Centre for Criminology, University of Greenwich, London, United Kingdom

Contact Person: Dr Dragana Spencer

Contact Email Address: rd38@gre.ac.uk