Fair Trial Rights and Multilingualism in Africa

Fair Trial Rights and Multilingualism in Africa PDF Author: Catherine S. Namakula
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000789527
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 137

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Book Description
This book examines the best language fair trial practices of the courts in arguably the most multilingual region of the world. It contains an instructive list of standards and approaches to linguistic dynamics, which may be considered a language fair trial rights code. By way of jurisprudential analysis and scrutiny of constitutional imperatives and examination of legislation among the respective jurisdictions from the Sahel region, to the Horn of Africa, and the Cape, this publication presents peculiar country-specific practices and common standards aiming towards the realisation of a fair trial in a multilingual context. The exceptionally multilingual nature of legal processes in Africa makes the standards in the region instructive in the progression towards a universal language fair trial rights code. The book reveals valuable lessons across jurisdictions, including those outside Africa, and suggests measures that may be taken to improve existing approaches. It will be a valuable resource for academics, researchers, and policy-makers working in the areas of Law and Language, Legal Linguistics, Forensic Linguistics, Criminal Justice, and Comparative Law.

Fair Trial Rights and Multilingualism in Africa

Fair Trial Rights and Multilingualism in Africa PDF Author: Catherine S. Namakula
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000789527
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 137

Get Book

Book Description
This book examines the best language fair trial practices of the courts in arguably the most multilingual region of the world. It contains an instructive list of standards and approaches to linguistic dynamics, which may be considered a language fair trial rights code. By way of jurisprudential analysis and scrutiny of constitutional imperatives and examination of legislation among the respective jurisdictions from the Sahel region, to the Horn of Africa, and the Cape, this publication presents peculiar country-specific practices and common standards aiming towards the realisation of a fair trial in a multilingual context. The exceptionally multilingual nature of legal processes in Africa makes the standards in the region instructive in the progression towards a universal language fair trial rights code. The book reveals valuable lessons across jurisdictions, including those outside Africa, and suggests measures that may be taken to improve existing approaches. It will be a valuable resource for academics, researchers, and policy-makers working in the areas of Law and Language, Legal Linguistics, Forensic Linguistics, Criminal Justice, and Comparative Law.

Language and the Right to Fair Hearing in International Criminal Trials

Language and the Right to Fair Hearing in International Criminal Trials PDF Author: Catherine S. Namakula
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 331901451X
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 146

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Book Description
Language and the Right to Fair Hearing in International Criminal Trials explores the influence of the dynamic factor of language on trial fairness in international criminal proceedings. By means of empirical research and jurisprudential analysis, this book explores the implications that conducting a trial in more than one language can have for the right to fair trial. It reveals that the language debate is as old as international criminal justice, but due to misrepresentation of the status of language fair trial rights in international law, the debate has not yielded concrete reforms. Language is the core foundation for justice. It is the means through which the rights of the accused are secured and exercised. Linguistic complexities such as misunderstandings, translation errors and cultural distance among participants in international criminal trials affect courtroom communication, the presentation and the perception of the evidence, hence jeopardizing the foundations of a fair trial. The author concludes that language fair trial rights are priority rights situated in the minimum guarantees of fair criminal trial; the obligation of the court to ensure fair trial or accord the accused person a fair hearing also includes the duty to ensure they can understand and be understood.

Access to Justice in Africa and Beyond

Access to Justice in Africa and Beyond PDF Author:
Publisher: Ntl Inst for Trial Advocacy
ISBN: 9781601560162
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 340

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Book Description


Human Rights Manual and Sourcebook for Africa

Human Rights Manual and Sourcebook for Africa PDF Author: Keir Starmer
Publisher: BIICL
ISBN: 0903067846
Category : Civil rights
Languages : en
Pages : 1486

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Book Description
At a time when the issue of human rights in Africa is making many advances, Human Rights Sourcebook and Manual for Africa introduces easy-to-use jurisprudence. The first section covers key principles and human rights norms which are detailed in straightforward language. The second section is devoted to the death penalty, detailing the relevant provisions from both international and regional instruments and offering a comparative commentary as to how the principles and relevant rights relate to the death penalty. The third section summarizes key case law from international, regional and domestic African courts and tribunals. The case summaries detail the facts and decisions and include a headnote of relevant concepts for quick reference. The fourth section focuses on thirteen African countries, yet the reports are a useful comparative resource for all countries. From conducting the research and compiling the material for this final section, it is apparent that nothing like this has been attempted before in Africa. Much of the work emanates from primary research and investigation conducted by local research teams in the individual countries. Investigative research includes visiting prisons, physically counting the individuals on death row and interviewing the detainees to obtain their age and the length of time they had been on death row.

Language and Legal Judgments

Language and Legal Judgments PDF Author: Stanisław Goźdź-Roszkowski
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1003847803
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 186

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Book Description
Integrating research methods from Linguistics with contemporary Legal Argumentation Theory, this book highlights the complexities of legal justification by focusing on the role of value-laden language in argument construction and use. The combination of linguistic analysis and the pragma-dialectic approach to legal argumentation yields a new way of perceiving and understanding the phenomenon of evaluation, one that offers theoretical and practical gains. Analyzing a vast corpus of judicial opinions from the United States Supreme Court and Poland’s Constitutional Court, the book paints a clear picture of complex linguistic choices made by judges to assess and support arguments in the justifications of their decisions. The book will be of interest to scholars in Law, Linguistics and Rhetoric, as well as to judges and practicing lawyers engaged in the art of argumentation.

Ambiguity in EU Law

Ambiguity in EU Law PDF Author: Sofiya Kartalova
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000687015
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 186

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Book Description
Ambiguity – an expression or utterance giving rise to at least two mutually exclusive interpretations – has been traditionally regarded as an ever-present, and therefore trivial, feature of EU law, alongside other forms of linguistic indeterminacy. At the same time, ambiguity has been condemned as a perilous defect in the legal text, since it is commonly assumed that the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) would necessarily exploit it to engage in judicial activism. In contrast, more recent theories present ambiguity as a means of promoting greater acceptability and coherence, while trusting the CJEU’s willingness to exert judicial restraint for the benefit of judicial co-operation. This ground-breaking work challenges some of the theoretical assumptions about ambiguity in EU law and puts forward a more accurate and complete theory about the CJEU’s strategic use of ambiguity. Ambiguity is here transformed from an underestimated or misunderstood detail of undetermined significance to a desirable systemic feature of the EU legal order with concrete properties and impact. Ambiguity as the implicit basis of the CJEU’s decision-making is shown to be strategically valuable for the implementation of the authority of EU law at some of the most pivotal moments in the evolution of the EU legal order. This interdisciplinary investigation presents in-depth linguistic and legal analysis of ambiguity found in the text of key provisions of EU Treaties and in the language of some of the CJEU’s leading preliminary rulings in the area of fundamental rights, freedom of movement and EU citizenship. The book suggests a categorisation of examples, basic guidance about the type of case and situation where the phenomenon is likely to emerge as well as an assessment of the advantages and disadvantages of this unusual judicial technique. The book will be a valuable resource for researchers and academics working in the areas of Law and Language, Public International Law, EU Law and Multilingualism.

Towards the Abolition of the Death Penalty in Africa

Towards the Abolition of the Death Penalty in Africa PDF Author: Lilian Chenwi
Publisher: PULP
ISBN: 0980265800
Category : Capital punishment
Languages : en
Pages : 263

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Book Description
This book is an updated and reworked version of the thesis which was submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Laws (LLD) in the Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria.

South African Language Rights Monitor 2003

South African Language Rights Monitor 2003 PDF Author: Theo du Plessis
Publisher: AFRICAN SUN MeDIA
ISBN: 1920383301
Category : Language policy
Languages : en
Pages : 182

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Book Description
The South African Language Rights Monitor (SALRM) Project surveys the mainstream newspapers of South Africa with a view to compile annual reports on the developments on the language front in the country. While the main focus is on language rights and language (rights) activism, the yearly Monitor also covers other language-related problems, including name changes, as well as aspects of language promotion. For anybody interested in subjects ranging from the (proposed) renaming of Bloemfontein, Louis Trichardt, Pretoria, Port Elizabeth and Johannesburg International Airport to the incident of Johann Rupert withdrawing his advertisements from a British magazine, and from the saga on mother-tongue education at schools to the language policy in the judicial system and the success of the South African films Yesterday and U-Carmen eKhayelitsha, the SALRM 2005 provides a rich source of information. The SALRM Project is housed in the Department of Language Management and Language Practice at the University of the Free State.

Language and the Law

Language and the Law PDF Author: Monwabisi K. Ralarala
Publisher: African Sun Media
ISBN: 1991201834
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 458

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Book Description
Language and the Law: Global Perspectives in Forensic Linguistics from Africa and beyond is the third volume in a series of books designed to contribute and respond to growing interest in forensic linguistics or language and the law on the African continent. Drawing mostly on contexts where traditional African laws and Western laws are practised side-by-side, and where there are discontinuities between local knowledge systems, belief systems and language practices on the one hand, and official languages of law discourse, conceptualisation and jurisprudence documentation on the other, the chapters in this volume problematise, among other issues, the mediation practices (or lack thereof) of language and legal processes, discourse strategies and complexities in (mis)interpretations in second language court contexts and the miscarriage of justice that these may entail.

Minority Protection in Post-Apartheid South Africa

Minority Protection in Post-Apartheid South Africa PDF Author: Kristin Henrard
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0313012148
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 329

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Book Description
Accommodation of population diversity is a vital issue for any multinational society. The legacy of Apartheid in South Africa complicates this effort considerably. Henrard introduces a theoretical framework regarding how to accommodate minority protection in the most appropriate way and analyzes the respective contributions of individual rights, minority rights, and the right to self-determination. Subsequent chapters examine the case study of post-apartheid South Africa and attempt to investigate its constitutional development. Henrard finds that provisions within the 1996 Constitution do acknowledge an interrelation between these three important factors; however, implementation of minority protection policy is often quite a different matter. In seeking appropriate means of minority protection, this study stresses inclusionism, integration, and the essential right to identity and real equality. While Henrard reviews and discusses the entire democratic transformation process in South Africa, she cautions that, because current developments are characterized by their unsettled nature, major transformation and flux, analysis of the implementation phase can be only indicative. The apartheid history does not in itself inhibit progressive stances on this important issue. Still, despite the promising nature of the 1996 Constitution, the picture that emerges in terms of policy development aimed at minority protection is ambivalent.