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Arab and English cultures are incongruent, where the former is greatly influenced by religion when compared to the latter. This study focuses on court interpreting from Arabic into English and questions the interpreters' objectivity when rendering religious and cultural expressions, bearing in mind that certain cultures, like the Arab and Muslim ones, have significant religious ties. To this end, fifteen transcripts were randomly collected from Canadian court hearings. The analysis showed that interpreting religious and cultural expressions can be complex, especially when the original speaker attempts to transmit a notion that may have negative implications in the target language. The results also showed that court interpreters either added explanations to religious and cultural expressions or omitted them. Such additions and omissions may be used to avoid negative stereotypes other cultures have about Muslims and Arabs. The study recommends that future researchers interested in legal interpreting consider the non-verbal factors that can be observed during court hearings. The study suggests allocating extensive training sessions to interpreters on how to impartially render culture-bound expressions, mainly in the legal context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study analyzes the provisions of the Law No 114/2021 on some measures in the field of justice in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in civil cases. The mentioned normative act provides the conditions for conducting the court hearings in the civil trial by videoconference. The conditions are the following: to be decreed the state of alert instituted in order to prevent and combat the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic also for a period of 30 days from its cessation; to be about a civil case; to have the agreement of the parties in this respect; to have the possibility; the approval of the court of law. The Constitutional Court, by the Decisions No 157/2020 and No 457/2020, has established that the justice cannot stand still, not even during the COVID-19 pandemic, under this requirement the legislator regulating by the Law No 114/2021 the manner of conducting judicial proceedings during this period. However, the legislator did not rise up to the standards imposed by the Constitutional Court of Romania, in the sense that it did not regulate an effective way of access to justice, in the situation where the objective pandemic conditions restrict this possibility. Although we appreciate positively the provisions of the Law No 114/2021 referring to the development of the civil process by electronic means, we consider that the measures ordered should be generalized and not applied, as provided by Article 1 (2), only for reasons generated by the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using two randomized controlled courtroom experiments on actual litigants at court hearings, we examine a thus far unexplored reason why perceived procedural justice can be strongly associated with litigants' trust in judges and legitimate power assigned to judges. We argue that because litigants try to make sense of what is happening at their hearings, they will tend to inhibit ongoing action in order to pause and check what is going on in the courtroom. During this state of behavioral inhibition, experiences of how fairly judges are treating them will have a sturdy impact on litigants’ reactions. This explanation implies that an experimental manipulation known to weaken behavioral inhibition should attenuate the positive association between perceived procedural justice and trust and legitimacy ratings. The results of both experiments support this line of reasoning. We discuss the implications for the understanding of the psychology of procedural justice and the robustness of priming effects in experimental social psychology.

Independent experts serve a vital role in how the human rights of patients are protected in mental health law. This article investigates the contribution of court-appointed psychiatrists (APs) in civil commitment court hearings. Analysis is based on 12 court hearings that were audiotaped. Supplementary informal interviews with participants were also conducted. Data were analysed through a combination of rhetoric analysis and discourse analysis. Analysis of the hearings reveals that APs do not fulfil their function to critically investigate treating psychiatrists’ (CPs) recommendations that patients meet commitment criteria. They typically do not ask any questions from CPs, and the few questions that are asked do not cast light on the legal issues at stake. To further understand the role of APs, their communication has been analyzed in terms of four interpretative repertoires: collegial, disclosing, therapeutic and mediating. In conclusion, the human rights of patients subjected to involuntary commitment might be at risk when therapeutic concerns are built into the process. The specific Swedish model where APs deliver their own assessment about whether commitment criteria are met may be counterproductive. This argument possibly extends to the role of medical members in mental health tribunals in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand.

Compulsory community care (CCC) was introduced in Sweden in 2008. This article investigates all written court decisions regarding CCC over a 6 month period in 2009 (N = 541). The purpose is to examine how the legal rights of patients are protected and what forms of social control patients are subjected to. 51% of CCC patients are women and 84% are being treated for a psychosis-related disorder. In the court decisions, only 9% of patients are described as dangerous to themselves, while 18% are regarded a danger to others. The most common special provisions that patients are subjected to are medication (79%) and a requirement that they must maintain contact with either community mental health services (51%) or social services (27%). In the decisions, both the courts and court-appointed psychiatrists agree with treating psychiatrists in 99% of cases. Decisions lack transparency and clarity, and it is often impossible to understand the conclusions of the courts. There is considerable variation between regional courts as regards the provisions to which patients are subjected and the delegation of decision-making to psychiatrists. This means that decisions fail to demonstrate clarity, transparency, consistency and impartiality, and thus fail to meet established standards of procedural fairness. Surveillance techniques of social control are more common than techniques based on therapy or sanctions. Because of the unique role of medication, social control is primarily imposed on a physical dimension, as opposed to temporal and spatial forms. The article concludes that patients are at risk of being subjected to new forms of social control of an unclear nature without proper legal protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to analyse the role of the legal representative in therapeutic law, specifically in Swedish administrative court hearings relating to compulsory care. Data are collected from three types of cases where a health or social welfare authority argues that it is necessary to apply coercion to a citizen: the Care of Young Persons (Special Provisions) Act, the Care of Alcohol and Drug Abusers (Special Provisions) Act and the Compulsory Psychiatric Care Act. The data consist of audio-recordings from 39 hearings, supplemented by 28 interviews with participants in these hearings, and court documents. Three primary roles of the legal representatives are identified: defender, spokesperson and therapist. We show how the primary role of the attorney becomes that of the spokesperson, but also that the role of the therapist takes precedence over that of the defender. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]