Dr. Philipp S. Angermeyer
In democratic societies, the use of interpreters or translators is widely viewed as a suitable remedy for preserving the rights of individuals who interact with the judicial system but are not proficient in its dominant language. However, this view tends to ignore the effects of interpreting and translation on legal-lay communication. Drawing on pragmatic and sociolinguistic analyses of court interpreting and of written translation in institutional contexts, this talk explores ways in which particular practices of translation may disadvantage and discriminate against speakers of non-dominant languages.