Communicating across cultures in South African law courts: towards an information technology solution*

Kaschula, Russell H; Mostert, André

Title: Communicating across cultures in South African law courts: towards an information technology solution*
Creator: Kaschula, Russell H
Creator: Mostert, André
Subject: Language policy -- South Africa
Subject: Courts interpreting and translating -- South Africa
Subject: Translating and interpreting -- Technological innovations
Subject: Intercultural communication -- South Africa
Subject: Conduct of court proceedings -- South Africa
Subject: Linguistic rights -- South Africa
Subject: Multilingualism -- South Africa
Date Issued: 2008
Date: 2008
Type: article
Type: text
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/59423
Identifier: vital:27599
Identifier: doi: 10.5842/36-0-39
Description: Language rights in South Africa are entrenched in the Constitution of South Africa (Chapter 1, Section 6, Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996). However, the concomitant infrastructure and organisational realities make this policy difficult to implement, especially in law courts (Kaschula and Ralarala 2004). Creating effective communicative environments has historically been constrained by lack of effective training of legal practitioners and by the lack of capacity for building translation structures. With the advancement of technology, potential solutions are becoming more apparent and it is incumbent upon the academic community to embark on a rigorous investigation into possible solutions and how these Information Communication Technology (ICT) solutions could be applied to the execution of justice in South African law courts. This article aims to open the discourse of possible solutions, via assessments of computer based translation solutions, ICT context simulations and other potential opportunities. The authors hope to initiate the interest of other language and legal practitioners to explore how the new technological capabilities could be harnessed to support the entrenchment of language rights in our law courts.
Format: 16 pages
Format: pdf
Language: English
Relation: Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics PLUS
Relation: Kaschula, R.H., Mostert, A. and Ralarala, M.K., 2008. Communicating across cultures in South African law courts: Towards an information technology solution. Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics Plus, 36, pp.89-104
Relation: Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics PLUS 36 vol. 89 104 2008 2224-3380
Rights: Stellenbosch University
Rights: Use of this resource is governed by the terms and conditions of the (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/.)

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Kaschula, Russell H (Prof)

RU School of Languages and Literatures

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