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APRIL/MAY 2017 The Linguist 11
FEATURES
O
ver recent decades, interpreting
in criminal justice has received
significant attention from academics
and practitioners. However, in all 47
Member States of the Council of Europe,
the number of civil cases is much higher
than that of criminal cases. Although there
are international, EU and national legislative
safeguards underpinning similar rights in
civil proceedings as in criminal proceedings –
including language assistance – comments
on the provision and quality of interpreting in
civil cases are scanty and superficial.
In addition, both the EU and national
legal systems are actively promoting
methods of alternative dispute resolution
(ADR).
1
The reasons are clear: they relieve
overburdened court rolls, and are efficient,
speedy, confidential and less costly.
Additionally, ADR may have the enormous
advantage of solving the root causes of a
conflict rather than its legalistic issues alone.
Finally, civil proceedings, including ADR
procedures, increasingly involve other-
language speakers in national or 'cross-
border' cases (as do proceedings in other
legal domains).
As an example, approximately 15% of
divorces in Germany each year concern
couples of different nationalities, while
hundreds of children are victims of abduction
within the EU each year. It therefore seemed
timely and useful to investigate a domain
within civil proceedings and ADR where
there is an established need and practice of
interpreting: mediation.
Part-funded by the Directorate-General
Justice of the European Commission, the
two-year Understanding Justice project was
launched in 2014 to examine this area.
2
I was
among the participants in this multi-party
project, coordinated by Brooke Townsley at
Middlesex University in London, along with
colleagues at other European universities and
expert advisors.
Mediation exists in civil, administrative and
criminal matters, and may be initiated by the
parties involved, or suggested or ordered by
a court. It is quite common in national and
cross-border family disputes (divorce, custody,
child abduction), disputes in the workplace,
Erik Hertog reveals the findings of a new project looking
at bilingual mediators and interpreting in civil disputes
Mediation:
is four a crowd?
©
SHUTTERSTOCK
