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The world of law has changed in the last decades: it has become more globalized, multilingual and digital. The sections and contributions of this volume continue the interdisciplinary discussion about the challenges of this change for theory and practice of law and for the International Language and Law Association (ILLA) relaunched in 2017. First, the book gives a broad overview to the research field of legal linguistics, its history, research directions and open questions in different parts of the world (United States, Africa, Italy, Spain, Germany, Nordic countries and Russia). The second section consists of contributions about the relation of language, law and justice in a globalized world with a focus on multilingual and supranational law in the EU. The third section focuses on digitalization and mediatization of the law, the last section reports about the discussion at the ILLA relaunch conference in 2017.

Legislation is characterized by a high degree of linguistic conservatism. So, despite existing EU and national guidelines, inclusive choices are still limited in legislation at both levels. An introduction to the topic of gender in language and in legal language opens the volume, focusing on the EU dimension and on the language policies of England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. In the following, five sociolinguistic contexts are described, and three Romance, and two Germanic linguistic traditions are compared through qualitative and quantitative corpus analyses based on the same corpora and consistent methodological guidelines. These studies aim at highlighting the presence or absence of a gender-neutral language in European and national laws.

Focusing on the multi-faceted topic of Eurolects, this volume brings together knowledge and methodologies from various disciplines, including sociolinguistics, legal linguistics, corpus linguistics, and translation studies. The legislative varieties of eleven EU official and working languages (Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Italian, Latvian, Maltese, Polish, Spanish) are analyzed using corpus methodologies in order to investigate the variational dynamics and translation-induced patterns of the different languages. The underlying assumption is that, within the sociolinguistic continua of the EU languages, it is possible to single out specific legislative varieties (Eurolects) that originate at a supra-national level. This research hypothesis is strongly supported by the empirical findings derived from detailed corpus analyses of each language. This work represents the first systematic and comprehensive linguistic research conducted on a wide range of EU languages using the same protocol and applying corpus methodologies to the extensive Eurolect Observatory Multilingual Corpus.

This book focuses on legal concepts from the dual perspective of law and terminology. While legal concepts frame legal knowledge and take center stage in law, the discipline of terminology has traditionally been about concept description. Exploring topics common to both disciplines such as meaning, conceptualization and specialized knowledge transfer, the book gives a state-of-the-art account of legal interpretation, legal translation and legal lexicography with special emphasis on EU law. The special give-and-take of law and terminology is illuminated by real-life legal cases which demystify the ways courts do things with concepts. This original approach to the semantics of legal concepts is then incorporated into the making of a legal dictionary, thus filling a gap in the theory and practice of legal lexicography. With its rich repertoire of examples of legal terms in different languages, the book provides a blend of theory and practice, making it a valuable resource not only for scholars of law, language and lexicography but also for legal translators and students.

Written by distinguished legal and linguistic scholars and practitioners from the EU institutions, the contributions in this volume provide multidisciplinary perspectives on the vital role of language and culture as key forces shaping the dynamics of EU law. The broad spectrum of topics sheds light on major Europeanization processes at work: the gradual creation of a neutralized EU legal language with uniform concepts, for example, in the DCFR and CESL, and the emergence of a European legal culture. The main focus is on EU multilingual lawmaking, with special emphasis on problems of legal translation and term formation in the multilingual and multicultural European context, including comparative law aspects and an analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of translating from a lingua franca. Of equal importance are issues relating to the multilingual interpretation of EU legislation and case law by the national courts and interpretative techniques of the CJEU, as well as the viability of the autonomy of EU legal concepts and the need for the professionalization of court interpreters Union-wide in response to Directive 2010/64/EU. Offering a good mix of theory and practice, this book is intended for scholars, practitioners and students with a special interest in the legal-linguistic aspects of EU law and their impact on old and new Member States and candidate countries as well.

EU Language Law gives a comprehensive account of all language regulations and arrangements which currently exist in EU law. First and foremost, the book covers the various explicit and implicit language regimes of EU institutions, bodies, and agencies, explaining how and why they came about. It explores numerous other EU language provisions in the area of freedom, security, and justice, relating to quite diverse topics, such as road traffic offenses, recognition of national court decisions, the European Arrest Warrant, and crime victims. It also discusses EU linguistic provisions in the internal market regarding product labeling or the language proficiency assessment of professionals, such as medical doctors or lawyers seeking to provide services in other EU Member States. Many other issues, such as language testing for newcomers in society and language proficiency requirements for employment, are investigated. The book highlights an often neglected yet tremendously important aspect of EU integration: the language issue. ••• Librarians: ebook available on ProQuest and EBSCO [Subject: European Law]

How can multilingualism and legal certainty be reconciled in EU law? Despite the importance of multilingualism for the European project, it has attracted only limited attention from legal scholars. This book provides a valuable contribution to this otherwise neglected area. Whilst firmly situated within the field of EU law, the book also employs theories developed in linguistics and translation studies. More particularly, it explores the uncertainty surrounding the meaning of multilingual EU law and the impact of multilingualism on judicial reasoning at the European Court of Justice. To reconceptualize legal certainty in EU law, the book highlights the importance of transparent judicial reasoning and dialogue between courts and suggests a discursive model for adjudication at the European Court of Justice. Based on both theory and case law analysis, this interdisciplinary study is an important contribution to the field of European legal reasoning and to the study of multilingualism within EU legal scholarship.

Mehrsprachigkeit wirkt auf verschiedensten Ebenen. Innerhalb der EU sind insbesondere Ansprüche sozio-politischer Art augenfällig. Der Band hinterfragt die europäische Mehrsprachigkeit als Chance und Herausforderung für die Wissensgesellschaft. Ausgangspunkt der Beiträge ist ein verbal-Workshop während der 36. Österreichischen Linguistiktagung (Wien, 2008). Dabei tauschten sich mit Wien assoziierte oder eng kooperierende Forschende aus den zwei EU-Großprojekten DYLAN (Language Dynamics and Management of Diversity) und LINEE (Languages in a Network of European Excellence) über erste Ergebnisse aus. Die schriftliche Fassung der Beiträge zeigt die Mehrdimensionalität und die Fragmentiertheit des Konzepts und des Forschungsbereichs Mehrsprachigkeit auf und lädt gleichzeitig zum Überschreiten disziplinärer wie geografischer Grenzen ein.

Isabel Schübel-Pfister behandelt die Rechtsprobleme des mehrsprachigen Gemeinschaftsrechts, insbesondere seine Auslegung bei divergierenden Sprachfassungen. Nach einem Blick auf das Spannungsverhältnis zwischen Recht und Sprache im Allgemeinen wird das Sprachenrecht der EU dargestellt. Den Schwerpunkt der Arbeit bildet die Rechtsprechung des EuGH zur Auslegung des mehrsprachigen Gemeinschaftsrechts. Die sprachvergleichenden Urteile werden systematisiert und analysiert. Dabei weist die Autorin nach, dass die Interpretationsmethoden des EuGH der Gleichberechtigung der Amtssprachen nicht hinreichend Rechnung tragen. Zudem wird aufgezeigt, dass die Judikatur, die eine unbedingte Pflicht der nationalen Rechtsanwender zum Sprachvergleich statuiert, im Widerspruch zu allgemeinen Rechtsgrundsätzen des Gemeinschaftsrechts steht. Isabel Schübel-Pfister entwickelt ein Modell, das das berechtigte Vertrauen der Unionsbürger auf ihre eigene Sprachfassung schützt. Abschließend zeigt sie Reformvorschläge für das Sprachenrecht angesichts der EU-Osterweiterung auf.

Der Verfasser untersucht die aktuelle und zukünftig mögliche Bedeutung der deutschen Sprache im Recht der EU. Nach der Einleitung und Zielbeschreibung im ersten Teil der Arbeit widmet sich Teil 2 der aktuellen Bedeutung der deutschen Sprache. Ausführlich werden die sprachlichen Regelungen im Primär- sowie im Sekundärrecht behandelt. Daran schließt sich eine kritische Analyse der Rechtswirklichkeit in der EU an, wobei vielfach Verstöße zu Lasten der deutschen Sprache festgestellt werden. Außerdem geht der Autor den rechtlichen und politischen Möglichkeiten nach, Verstößen gegen das Sprachregime entgegenzuwirken. Im dritten Teil der Untersuchung widmet sich Markus A. Kürten der Zukunft der deutschen Sprache. Dabei geht er auf die enormen Anforderungen der Osterweiterung für die Gemeinschaft in sprachlicher Hinsicht ein und unterbreitet auch Vorschläge zur Verhinderung eines'Babylon in Brüssel'. Insbesondere empfiehlt er eine verbindliche Festlegung der Arbeitssprachen auf Englisch, Französisch und Deutsch. Abschließend kommt er zu dem Ergebnis, daß der hohe Gemeinschaftswert der kulturellen Vielfalt es verbietet, eine einzige Sprache zur Lingua franca der Union zu erheben.