Linguistic Equity and Procedural Justice through an Interpreter in Court

This book presents the findings from original research about court interpreting in the disciplines of humanities and social sciences from a linguistic perspective. It argues that the interpretations of the manner of speech in court can have implications for the accuracy of court interpreting and thus procedural justice. The right to a fair representation in one's language of choice is a crucial aspect of linguistic equity and procedural justice. However, little has been researched about how lawyer questions and the defendant's responses are interpreted in courtroom examinations. Drawing on questionnaires and interpreting performance data, this mixed-methods study adopts a practice-informed and evidence-based approach to showcase how linguistic evidence can be altered and under-represented through an interpreter in court. This book has three main contributions: (1) increasing the awareness of interpreting accuracy through the manner of speech, linguistic equity, and procedural justice through a court interpreter; (2) promoting effective multilingual legal communication through interprofessional understanding and researcher-practitioner collaboration; and (3) compassing future pedagogies about the interpreting accuracy of the manner of speech in court interpreter training. Readers interested in applied linguistics and translation studies would benefit from reading this book. This interdisciplinary work focuses on language policy, court interpreting, and linguistic human rights policy and qualitative research methods.

Ran Yi is a licensed practitioner and a researcher with extensive prior experience as a staff interpreter in institutional and organisational settings. Over the past decade, diverse work experiences range from Fortune Global 500 Companies (Tencent Technology Human Resources Function), diplomatic interpreting for the former Minister of Justice and the former Minister of Ordnance (Norinco Group), military training interpreting (China National Defence University), international research and faculty administration (Nobel Prize laureate physicist research institute), creative production and publicity support (China Global Television Network), and academic news and journalism. Inspired by her family with generations of service in the judiciary as a judge and an attorney, military, and public education sector, together with her advisers and expert researchers, she undertakes practice-informed research and interdisciplinary knowledge exchange about linguistic human rights and linguistic equity through an interpreter in court, with a particular focus on migrants and minorities in their host societies.

Introduction 1. Conceptual Foundations 2. Theoretical Framework 3. Empirical Evidence 4. Practical Recommendations