Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

Abstract

The purpose of this essay is to advocate for including jurilinguistics in legal education. It presents jurilinguistics as a tool for understanding law and therefore supports continuing efforts to teach it. Knowing it is not unique, this essay proposes a jurilinguistic approach that focuses on the in-between of legal translation and comparative law. The proposal outlines the importance of educating in the capabilities of teaching a particular subject in a language other than their official one. The idea is to let the Other help to understand the Self. Particularly pertinent in transnational law programs, it is a multicultural approach that not only recognizes the other, but also embraces it.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. The expressions in inverted commas show the shift in the paradigm from a positivistic view, represented by the classic work of Hans Kelsen, to new ideas, some of them with a linguistic support, i.e. those put together in a collective work, where Andrée Lajoie uses the expression anti-positivist. See, [43, 48].

  2. For the matter (in French) see J.-C. Gémar’s explanation in a note [22]: 7.

  3. For the importance of keywords in legal research see, [25].

  4. In the word of François Laplantine et Alexis Nouss, the idea of entre means “l’interstitialité métisse, qui est le contraire de l’homogène et du compact, ne désigne pas un état situé dans un espace. Elle introduit un devenir. Elle n’occupe pas une place intermédiaire entre deux pôles, elle n’est pas un point situé à équidistance entre les deux, mais un mouvement rythmique d’intermittence” [50]: 217.

  5. The term globalization is used as a generic word to described the increase global exchange in many different fields, political, economic, cultural, etc. Its use will be reduced at a minimum as it is not the goal of this paper to enter in that matter. The premise is a recognition of the factual increase of exchanges and the existence of intense debates on its goodness and methods.

  6. It is to note particularly the interest in English in no English-speaking environments. Scholars outlined the conflict between publishing in the local language and in English [2].

  7. I participated in the context here described through my métisse [60]: 9–11 experience as a Canadian landed immigrant, as a Court Interpreter in Montreal and as an undergraduate and graduate student at the Faculty of Law of Université de Montréal. I was exposed to McGill´s Faculty of Law´s approach to bilingualism and biljuralism through my work as a researcher at Paul-André Crépeau Centre for Private and Comparative Law. There, I collaborated with the organization of the 3rd, 4th and 5th Summer Institutes of Juringustics. I also collaborated with the Grupo Hispano, following my work of co-organizing the series of Legal Spanish Workshops and teaching many of them.

  8. See http://www.mcgill.ca/centre-crepeau/activities/jurilinguistics/5th/ (last visited May, 7th 2012). The increasing number of participants trough the 3rd (2009), 4th (2010) and 5th (2011) Summer Institute of Jurilinguistics shows the growing interest in the field and the richness of multidisciplinary and multilingual exchanges.

  9. For several studies on the McGill program see, http://www.mcgill.ca/centre-crepeau/transsystemic/articles/ (last visited May, 7th 2012).

  10. See http://www.mcgill.ca/centre-crepeau/transsystemic/history/ (last visited May, 7th 2012), [53]: 738–739.

  11. It is of most importance to note that this study suggests no supremacy whatsoever of Spanish and Latin America upon other languages or legal cultures. Particular conjunctures pushed these two Others to be of consideration. Spanish is one of the most spoken languages of the world. It is one of the four main languages of the Americas and one of the foreign languages most spoken in Canada and Quebec [34]; it is the second language in the US and the one with most presense in Latin America. As for Latin America, it is note the number of Free Trade Agreements Canada signed with several countries of the region (with the US and Mexico—NAFTA 1994, with Chile 1997, with Costa Rica 2002, with Colombia 2008, with Perou 2009 and with Panamá 2010). Source: http://www.international.gc.ca/trade-agreements-accords-commerciaux/agr-acc/index.aspx?lang=en&view=d (last visited November, 30th 2011).

  12. For further information on the main actors of this process: LALSA (a student Association focused on Latin American issues and Spanish language) and the Grupo Hispano de la Facultad de derecho, listen to Nelcy López Cuéllar presentation at http://www.mcgill.ca/files/centre-crepeau/Cuellar.mp3 (last visited May, 7th 2012).

  13. As a result, English is the language of this essay, with the foreignness of the French-speaking origin of jurilinguistics and my Spanish-speaking background in it.

  14. For the lingua franca in general and English particularly as well as its role in law, see [1, 2, 5, 12, 15, 16, 30, 54, 58, 73].

  15. After its Canadian origin, the term multiculturalism rapidly spread. Though it usually implies the recognition of difference and cultural diversity, its means are not univocal [24, 47]. Consequently, it is necessary to explain that, in this essay, the term is used in the sense of not only accepting but embracing the other. It is much inspired in the idea of métissage proposed by Alexis Nouss [60].

  16. The Faculté de droit de l’Université de Moncton offered for the 2010 Winter session a course on jurilinguistics accessible both to law and translation students. See http://www.umoncton.ca/umcm-fass-traduction/node/30 (last visited May 14th 2012).

References

  1. Alterini, Atilio Aníbal. 2009. Derecho internacional de los contratos. La Ley 2009-A: 671.

  2. Balán, Jorge. 2011. English and the rest: Understanding the languages of science. International Higher Education 65: 5–7.

    Google Scholar 

  3. Berman, Antoine. 1995. L’épreuve de l’étranger: Culture et traduction dans l’Allemagne romantique, Herder, Goethe, Schlegel, Novalis, Humboldt, Schleiermacher, Hölderlin. Paris: Gallimard.

    Google Scholar 

  4. Bogdan, Michael. 2005. Is there a curricular core for the transnational lawyer? Journal of Legal Education 55: 484–487.

    Google Scholar 

  5. Campana, Marie-Jeanne. 1999. Vers un langage juridique commun en Europe? In Les multiples langues du droit européen uniforme, ed. Rodolfo Sacco, and Luca Castellani, 7–34. Torino/Paris: Harmattan Italia/Harmattan.

    Google Scholar 

  6. Cornu, Gérard. 1999. Rapport de synthèse. In Les mots de la loi, ed. Nicolas Molfessis, 99–108. Paris: Économica.

    Google Scholar 

  7. Cornu, Gérard. 2005. Linguistique juridique. Domat droit privé:viii, 443.

  8. Craig, Scott. 2004/2005. A core curriculum for the transnational legal education of JD and LLB students: Surveying the approach of the international, comparative and transnational law program at Osgood Hall Law School. Penn State International Law Review 23: 757–773.

  9. de Mestral, Armand. 2003. Guest editorial: Bisystemic law-teaching—The McGill programme and the concept of law in the EU. Common Market Law Review 40: 799–807.

    Google Scholar 

  10. de Sousa Santos, Boaventura. 2004. Vers un nouveau sens commun juridique: droit, science et politique dans la transition paradigmatique. Trans. Nathalie Gonzales Lajoie. Droit et société. Série Sociologie, 39. Paris: LGDJ.

  11. Dubouchet, Paul. 2001. Le modèle juridique: Droit et herméneutique. Paris: L’Harmattan.

    Google Scholar 

  12. Eco, Umberto. 1994. La recherche de la langue parfaite dans la culture européenne. Faire l’Europe. Paris: Éditions du Seuil.

  13. Eco, Umberto. 2001. Experiences in translation. Trans. Alastair McEWEN. Toronto Italian studies. Goggio publication series. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

  14. Ferretti, Federico. 2010. The design of an international mobility programme for PG law students at Brunel Law School: Putting theory and policy into practice. The Law Teacher 44(2): 181–194.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Fettes, Mark. 2001. Les géostratégies de l’interlinguisme. In Géostratégies des langues, ed. Jacques Maurais, and Michael Morris, 35–46. Terminogramme. Québec: Les publications du Québec.

  16. Fletcher, George P. 1999. Fair and reasonable. A linguistic glimpse into the American legal mind. In Les multiples langues du droit européen uniforme, ed. Rodolfo Sacco, and Luca Castellani, 57–70. Torino/Paris: Harmattan Italia/Harmattan.

    Google Scholar 

  17. Friel, Raymond J. 2005. Special methods for educating the transnational lawyer. Journal of Legal Education 55: 507–513.

    Google Scholar 

  18. Galdia, Marcus. 2009. Legal linguistics. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.

    Google Scholar 

  19. Garro, Alejandro. 1988. The teaching of Latin American legal systems in U.S. Law Schools. Journal of Legal Education 38: 271–277.

    Google Scholar 

  20. Gémar, Jean-Claude. 1995. Traduire, ou, L’art d’interpréter. Sainte-Foy, Québec: Presses de l’Université du Québec.

    Google Scholar 

  21. Gémar, Jean-Claude. 2005. Avant-propos. In Jurilinguistique: Entre langues et droits = jurilinguistics: Between law and language, ed. Jean-Claude Gémar, and Nicholas Kasirer, xiii–xvi. Montréal/Bruxelles: Éditions Thémis/Bruylant.

    Google Scholar 

  22. Gémar, Jean-Claude. 2005. Langage du droit et (juri)linguistique. États et fonctions de la jurilinguistique. In Jurilinguistique: Entre langues et droits = jurilinguistics: Between law and language, ed. Jean-Claude Gémar, and Nicholas Kasirer, 5–22. Montréal/Bruxelles: Éditions Thémis/Bruylant.

    Google Scholar 

  23. Gémar, Jean-Claude ed. 1982. Langage du droit et traduction: essais de jurilinguistique = The language of the law and translation: essays on jurilinguistics. In Langues de spécialité (Collection). Québec: Linguatech/Conseil de la langue française.

  24. Gervais, Sophie, Mélanie Roy, and Martin Lagassé. 1997. Le droit face aux diversités religieuses et culturelles. Sherbrooke: Les Éditions Revue de droit Université de Sherbrooke.

    Google Scholar 

  25. Goźdź-Roszkowski, Stanislaw. 2010. Responsibility and welfare: Keywords and semantic categories in legal academic journals. In Researching Language and the Law, vol. 121, ed. Davide S. Giannoni, and Celina Frade, 71–87. Series Linguistic Insights. Bern: Peter Lang.

  26. Greenstein, Rosalind. 2001. Vol au-dessus d’un nid de casquettes ou tout ce que vous avez toujours voulu savoir sur les pièges de la traduction juridique. In Variations autour d’un droit commun: Travaux préparatoires, ed. Mireille Delmas-Marty, 101–119. Paris: Société de législation comparée.

    Google Scholar 

  27. Grodley, James. 2000/2001. Comparative law and legal education. Tulane Law Review 75:1003–1014.

  28. Grosswald Curran, Vivian. 2004/2005. The role of foreign languages in educating lawyers for transnational challenges. Penn State International Law Review 23: 779–783.

    Google Scholar 

  29. Grosswald Curran, Vivian. 2006. Comparative law and language. In The Oxford handbook of comparative law, ed. Reinhard Zimmermann, and Mathias Reimann. Oxford: Oxford University Press. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=851506. Accessed 25 June 2012.

  30. Hamel, Rainer Enrique. 2005. Language empires, linguistic imperialism, and the future of global languages. Department of Anthropology, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana México, D.F. http://www.hamel.com.mx/Archivos-PDF/Work%20in%20Progress/2005%20Language%20Empires.pdf. Accessed 25 June 2012.

  31. Hoffman, Craig. 2011. Using discourse analysis methodology to teach “Legal English”. International Journal of Law, Language & Discourse 1(2): 1–19.

    Google Scholar 

  32. Iorns Magallanes, Catherine J. 2005. Teaching for transnational lawyering. Journal of Legal Education 55: 519–524.

    Google Scholar 

  33. Jakab, András. 2007. Dilemmas of legal education: A comparative overview. Journal of Legal Education 57: 253–265.

    Google Scholar 

  34. Jedwab, Jack, and Victor Armony. 2009. ¡Hola Canadá! Spanish is third most spoken language. FOCALPoint 8(4): 14–16.

    Google Scholar 

  35. Jukier, Rosalie. 2006. Transnationalizing the legal curriculum: How to teach what we live. Journal of Legal Education 56: 172–189.

    Google Scholar 

  36. Kasirer, Nicholas. 1992. The infans as bon père de famille: “Objectively Wrongful Conduct” in the Civil Law Tradition. American Journal of Comparative Law 40: 343–377.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  37. Kasirer, Nicholas. 1997. What is vie commune? Qu’est-ce que living together? In Mélanges offerts par ses collègues de McGill à Paul-André Crépeau = Mélanges presented by McGill colleagues to Paul-André Crépeau, ed. Centre de recherche en droit privé et comparé du Québec, 487–534. Cowansville, Quebec: Éditions Yvon Blais.

    Google Scholar 

  38. Kasirer, Nicholas. 1999. Le real estate existe-t-il en droit civil? Un regard sur le lexique juridique de droit civil de langue anglaise. In Les multiples langues du droit européen uniforme, ed. Rodolfo Sacco, and Luca Castellani, 89–113. Torino/Paris: Harmattan Italia/Harmattan.

    Google Scholar 

  39. Kasirer, Nicholas. 2002. Bijuralism in Law’s Empire and in Law’s Cosmos. Journal of Legal Education 52(1 & 2): 29–41.

    Google Scholar 

  40. Kasirer, Nicholas. 2003. Legal education as métissage. Tulane Law Review 78: 481–501.

    Google Scholar 

  41. Kasirer, Nicholas. 2003. Portalis now. In Le droit civil, avant tout un style?, ed. Nicholas Kasirer, 1–46. Montréal: Éditions Thémis.

    Google Scholar 

  42. Kasirer, Nicholas. 2005. “Délit” interdit! No “Offence”! In Colloque du trentenaire. Thirtieth Anniversary Conference. 19752005, ed. Centre de recherche en droit privé et comparé du Québec, 203–231. Montréal: Éditions Yvon Blais.

  43. Kelsen, Hans. 1967. Pure theory of law. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  44. Kischel, Uwe. 2009. Legal cultures—Legal languages. In Translation issues in language and law, ed. Frances E. Olsen, and Alexander Lorz, and Dieter Stein, 7–17. Basingstoke [England]; New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

  45. Knight, Jane. 2004. Internationalization remodeled: Definition, approaches, and rationales. Journal of Studies in International Education 8: 5–31.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  46. Knight, Jane. 2011. Five myths about internationalization. International Higher Education 62: 14–15.

    Google Scholar 

  47. Kymlicka, Will. 1995. Multicultural citizenship: A liberal theory of minority rights. Oxford political theory. Oxford; New York: Clarendon Press.

  48. Lajoie, Andrée. 1998. Introduction. In Théories et émergence du droit: Pluralisme, surdétermination et effectivité, ed. Andrée Lajoie, Roderick A. MAcdonald, Richard Janda, and Guy Rocher, 1–6. Montréal/Bruxelles: Éditions Thémis/Bruylant.

    Google Scholar 

  49. Laplantine, François, and Alexis Nouss. 1997. Le métissage: Un exposé pour comprendre, un essai pour réfléchir. Dominos; 145. Paris: Flammarion.

  50. Laplantine, François, and Alexis Nouss. 2001. Métissages: De Arcimboldo à Zombi. Paris: Pauvert.

    Google Scholar 

  51. Lebel-Grenier, Sébastien. 2006. What is a transnational legal education? Journal of Legal Education 56: 190–195.

    Google Scholar 

  52. Lundmark, Thomas. 1999. Educating lawyers for Europe. In Les multiples langues du droit européen uniforme, ed. Rodolfo Sacco, and Luca Castellani, 115–121. Torino/Paris: Harmattan Italia/Harmattan.

    Google Scholar 

  53. Macdonald, Roderick, and Jason MacLean. 2005. No toilets in park. McGill Law Journal 50: 721–787.

    Google Scholar 

  54. Maurais, Jacques. 2001. Introduction: Vers un nouvel ordre linguistique mondial? In Géostratégies des langues, ed. Jacques Maurais, and Michael Morris, 7–33. Terminogramme. Québec: Les publications du Québec.

  55. McAuley, Michael. 2002. On a theme by René David: Comparative law as technique indispensable. Journal of Legal Education 52: 42–48.

    Google Scholar 

  56. Mellinkoff, David. 2004. The language of the law. Eugene, OR: Resource Pub., an imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  57. Montoya, Juny. 2010. The current state of legal education reform in Latin America: A critical appraisal. Journal of Legal Education 59: 545–566.

    Google Scholar 

  58. Moréteau, Olivier. 1999. L’anglais pourrait-il devenir la langue juridique commune en Europe? In Les multiples langues du droit européen uniforme, ed. Rodolfo Sacco, and Luca Castellani, 143–162. Torino/Paris: Harmattan Italia/Harmattan.

    Google Scholar 

  59. Morisette, Yves-Marie. 2002. McGill’s integrated civil and common law program. Journal of Legal Education 52(1 & 2): 12–27.

    Google Scholar 

  60. Nouss, Alexis. 2005. Plaidoyer pour un monde métis. Paris: Textuel.

    Google Scholar 

  61. Ost, François. 1993. L’herméneutique juridique entre hermétisme et dogmatisme. Le jeu de l’interprétation en droit. Revue internationale de sémiotique juridique 8(18): 227–247.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  62. Ost, François. 2009. Le droit comme traduction. Collection Mercure du Nord/Verbatim. Québec: Presses de l’Université Laval.

  63. Pérez Perdomo, Rogelio, and Manuel Gómez. 2008. Innovaciones en la educación jurídica de América Latina. Derecho y Democracia 2(Cuadernos unimetanos 15): 2–5.

    Google Scholar 

  64. Pfersmann, Otto. 2001. Le droit comparé comme interprétation et comme théorie du droit. In Variations autour d’un droit commun: Travaux préparatoires, ed. Mireille Delmas-Marty, 121–134. Paris: Société de législation comparée.

    Google Scholar 

  65. Puig, Ricardo. 2002. Ciencia y arte de la traducción. Montevideo: Universidad de la República.

    Google Scholar 

  66. Sacco, Rodolfo. 1991. La comparaison juridique au service de la connaissance du droit. Collection Etudes juridiques comparatives. Paris: Economica.

  67. Sánchez, Gloria. 1997. A paradigm shift in legal education: Preparing law students for the twenty-first century: Teaching foreign law, culture, and legal language of the major U.S. American trading partners. San Diego Law Review 34: 635–679.

    Google Scholar 

  68. Šarčević, Susan. 1997. New approach to legal translation. The Hague/Boston: Kluwer Law International.

    Google Scholar 

  69. Smits, Jan M. 2011. European legal education, or: How to prepare students for global citizenship? The Law Teacher 45(2): 163–180.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  70. Spanbauer, Julie M., and Katerina P. Lewinbuk. 2008–2009. Embracing diversity through a multicultural approach to legal education. Charlotte Law Review 1:223–251.

  71. Tallon, Denis. 1999. Le choix des mots au regard des contraintes de traduction. In Les mots de la loi, ed. Nicolas Molfessis, 31–36. Paris: Économica.

    Google Scholar 

  72. Vanderlinden, Jacques. 1995. Comparer les droits. À la rencontre du droit. Bruxelles: E. Story-Scientia/Kluwer éd. juridiques Belgique.

  73. Vanderlinden, Jacques. 1999. Le futur des langues du droit ou le dilemme du dernier orateur. In Les multiples langues du droit européen uniforme, ed. Rodolfo Sacco, and Luca Castellani, 193–221. Torino/Paris: Harmattan Italia/Harmattan.

    Google Scholar 

  74. Wardhaugh, Ronald. 2002. An introduction to sociolinguistics. Massachusetts/Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  75. Waxman, Michael P. 2001. Teaching comparative law in the 21st. Century: Beyond the Civil/Common Law Dichotomy. Journal of Legal Education 51: 305–312.

    Google Scholar 

  76. White, James Boyd. 1990. Justice as translation: An essay in cultural and legal criticism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jimena Andino Dorato.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Andino Dorato, J. A Jurilinguistic Approach in Legal Education. Int J Semiot Law 26, 635–650 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11196-012-9278-5

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11196-012-9278-5

Keywords

Navigation