Legal Discourse Research Articles

Comparative Study of Google Translate and Yandex of English Latin-Originated Legal Phraseology into Arabic: A corpus-based approach

The use of machine translation has become ubiquitous across various translation practices, especially with the advent of neural machine translation and the integration of deep learning and artificial intelligence in translation program development. While the accuracy and quality of machine translation outcomes have significantly improved, challenges persist particularly in legal translation from English to Arabic. The unique nature of legal discourse and structural differences between English and Arabic make accurately translating legal language features a daunting task. This study aims to evaluate the quality of neural machine translation in rendering legal Latin phraseology into Arabic by comparing two websites: Google Translate and Yandex. A corpus-based approach was adopted where 270 Latin-origin legal terms and phrases were collected, scrutinised, and translated using both platforms. The evaluation focuses on four criteria: inappropriate translations, no translations provided, borrowing (phonetic transliteration into Arabic), and equivalence—the culturally and functionally suitable translation. Key findings indicate that despite significant advancements in machine translation technology, accuracy remains a critical issue, with approximately half of the terms not translated correctly. While Google Translate is widely used, Yandex demonstrated higher accuracy in this context. Furthermore, the majority of phrases selected for this study were not accurately translated by either website. The solution to this problem lies in enhancing the training process. Arabic users and translators should contribute more translations to enrich Arabic corpora online. Additionally, it's been observed that there is a lack of English-Arabic dictionaries or databases dedicated to Legal Language Processing (LLP). Therefore, initiating a research project addressing this issue could be of utmost importance. Regarding specialized language, improving the quality of Neural Machine Translation (NMT) raises questions about its reliability for both learners and professional translators. Accordingly, the study recommends further research on assessing machine translation quality, improving neural machine translation terminology accuracy, and enhancing machine learning models with more Arabic content and corpora.

LAW AND ECONOMICS IN THE CONTEXT OF TECHNOLOGICAL REVOLUTIONS

In this article the author makes an attempt to include into legal discourse some ideas and provisions of representatives of the neo-Schumpeterian direction of political economic thought. In addition, a brief historical and legal analysis of industrial revolutions is given, which served as a material basis for substantiating the synergy of economic and legal thought in terms of studying the problem of the influence of technological revolutions on public life. Based on the results of the study, the author comes to the conclusion that representatives of the neo-Schumpeterian direction pay due attention to the legal regulation of the economy, especially at the stage of transition to a new technological structure, as a result of which the provisions of this scientific school can be used in the future to predict and justify promising directions for the development of state- legal sphere.

US-based legal interpreters and their use of academic research: expectations, practices, and potential for collaboration between academia and the profession

This article examines the use of and opinions about academic research by US-based legal interpreters. It analyses the responses of 233 practising interpreters to an online survey. The survey explored: (1) tools and practices employed for problem solving and skill building; (2) access to and use of academic research; (3) factors affecting use of research; (4) goals and expectations regarding academic research; and (5) the potential role of different stakeholders (interpreters, researchers, educators, and professional associations) in conducting and disseminating research. Results reveal interpreters’ limited awareness of the concept of academic research and the current state of the art in legal interpreting. Respondents cite a neglect of professional needs in existing studies and inaccessible formats as major reasons for their lack of engagement. However, they recognize academic research as a valuable tool for enhancing practice and educating legal actors about interpreting. They express interest in furthering their knowledge of interpreting techniques, language and communication issues (particularly legal discourse), the physiological and psychological effects of interpreting, and work-related matters. They suggest closer collaboration between researchers and practitioners in conceptualising and developing empirical studies, and in disseminating findings beyond traditional academic formats.

Exploring the interface between corpus and statistical modelling: a multi-methodological analysis of lexical variation in Islamic legal discourse

This research sets out to investigate how ‘culture-specific’ or ‘signature’ concepts are rendered in English-language discourse on Islamic, or ‘shariʿa law. Islamic jurisprudence is born from the fusion of Islamic scriptures and Arabic culture; therefore, it provides ample room for accommodating a distinctive legal diction that is both culture-bound and system-bound. Accordingly, the expression of shariʿa law in English would fall under the paradigm of intersystemic translation, which occurs upon the mediation between two legal systems and poses the challenge of incongruity of legal terminology. This study is based on the self-built Islamic Law Corpus (ILC), a 9-million-word monolingual English corpus, covering diverse genres on Islamic finance and family law. Using the power of corpus-processing and statistical regression software (Sketch Engine & MATLAB), this research presents a multi-methodological, multifactorial, and interdisciplinary approach to investigate lexical variation in expressing cultural phenomena within Islamic legal discourse. The analysis confirms that the contextual factors (‘genre’, ‘function’, and ‘subject field’) do influence the choice of an Arabic loanword versus English alternatives.

Selective adherence to EU values and the quest for external coherence: a comparative discourse analysis of Czechia, Hungary, and Norway Amid Russia’s war in Ukraine

ABSTRACT Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has compelled the EU to adopt 13 sanction packages against Russia, demonstrating increased external coherence in the EU’s foreign policy. This consensus can potentially drive a more robust upgrade, further fortifying the Union’s external coherence. However, this progress is compromised by selective adherence to the EU’s values. Employing a multi-tiered theoretical framework, the study hypothesises that external coherence is rooted in a matrix of legal frameworks, policy discourses, and contributions from external actors. Using critical discourse analysis, the research investigates how selective adherence impacts the EU’s external coherence by comparing the discourses of four actors: Czechia, Hungary, the European External Action Service (EEAS), and Norway. Findings reveal that selective adherence to EU values is least evident in Hungary, moderately present in Czechia, and most pronounced in Norway, with the EEAS striving to promote coherence despite legislative constraints. While Russia’s war in Ukraine has significantly impacted the EU, selective adherence to EU values has nonetheless contributed to fragmented external coherence in its foreign policy, undermining the Union’s international credibility and geopolitical position.

From criminality to inclusion? Law and media framing of migrants in 1987–1990 and 2016–2019 Japan

ABSTRACT Immigration law and policies shape public understanding of immigrants by categorizing the population into dichotomies of ‘illegal’ or ‘legal,’ and ‘skilled’ or ‘unskilled.’ Within such processes, scholars emphasize the importance of media which diffuses policy rhetoric, and thus set the tone of public discussion. Yet, research on how immigration laws may shape media framing is scant, leaving questions of how and to what extent legal rhetoric do or do not translate into media. By creating a unique data set of 1929 Japanese newspaper articles during periods of immigration policy activity, in which government officials expanded the definition of ‘skilled’ workers, I investigate how legal discourse influences the media portrayal of foreigners. Taking a mixed methods approach, the quantitative results show that regardless of the ideological leaning of media outlets there is a significant increase in positive media framing concerning foreigners. Nonetheless, the qualitative results show that the distinction between ‘us’ and ‘them’ remains strongly intact through subtle forms of othering that justify the use of social control via policing and surveillance.

Perspectives of Gender-Diverse Youth and Caregivers Facing Gender-Affirming Medical Intervention Bans.

Purpose: In the past 2 years, nearly all 50 states have debated bills seeking to ban minors' access to gender-affirming medical interventions, with many being passed into law. This study documents gender-diverse youths' (GDY) and their caregivers' experiences as they grapple with how such laws impact their families. Methods: Sixteen GDY and 16 caregivers participating in a longitudinal study of the impact of gender-affirming care on GDYs' well-being were interviewed about how the legal and social discourse was impacting them and their families. When interviewed, some participants had completed only the initial intake, others had completed the intake and an initial medical consultation, and a few had recently started gender-affirming hormones. Thematic analysis was used to identify common threads in the youths' and caregivers' experiences. Results: Four main themes were identified: Direct effects of losing access to gender-affirming medical interventions, reflecting how losing access to care would impact well-being; growing hostility toward the gender-diverse community, noting increasing social negativity; personal and social upheaval, reflecting the many aspects of families' lives affected; and galvanization into social action, documenting drives to effect social change. Conclusion: Laws banning gender-affirming medical interventions impact GDY and their families beyond limiting access to medical care. They increase the social stressors, cause social network disruptions, increase hostility toward the gender-diverse community, and lead some GDY and caregivers to engage more politically to protect their community. Gender-affirming health care providers need to recognize how the social and political environment impact GDY and their families to provide high-quality, person-centered care.

The participation of foreign counsel in Nigeria-seated arbitration proceedings

Abstract With the growing reliance on arbitration as a mechanism for settling commercial disputes in Nigeria, the question of whether foreign counsel can represent parties in arbitration proceedings seated in Nigeria where the Arbitration and Mediation Act 2023 (‘AMA’) is adopted as the lex arbitri has become a focal point of legal discourse. This article explores the contrasting legal positions under the Arbitration and Conciliation Act 1988 (‘ACA’) and the newly enacted AMA. By examining the contrasting provisions of the ACA and the AMA, and their (potential) impact on arbitration proceedings and outcomes, this article contributes to a deeper understanding of the evolving dynamics within Nigeria’s arbitration sphere and provides insights for practitioners, scholars, and policymakers alike.

Setting the Argument

This article details an assignment that provides students opportunities to develop critical thinking skills native to the process of what it means to “think like a lawyer.” By asking students to map and compose a narrative about a contested public issue that describes the issue’s various dimensions (social, cultural, political, legal, economic) and how they interact to animate the issue as a matter of public concern, the assignment invites students to reimagine their roles as authors and see themselves as having the capacity to assemble and set a problem for analysis and deliberation rather than accept a problem as pre-structured. While completing the assignment, students witness firsthand the constitutive nature of the structure of legal discourse and the intra-operations of the distinct facets of legal critical thinking. Through explaining the assignment’s design and rationale, this article demonstrates how writing assignments that emphasize problem setting prepares students well to navigate the transition to law school and ultimately begin laying the grounds for successful professional careers.

Human Rights During and After the Criminal Trial in India: Legal Discourse

Code of Criminal Procedure 1973 (hereinafter 'CrPC') provides procedure for investigation, inquiry and trial in the criminal cases all over India

A Subtle Subversion

Abstract The Arab socio-political dominance of 7th-8th century AD Muslim conquerors made its way into the classical legal discourse on kafāʾa (suitable matches in marriage). Most classical jurists considered the marriage of an Arab woman to a non-Arab man to be one of several potential sources of shame to the bride and her family. This article traces how the Persian scholars of the Šāfiʿī school in Khurasan subverted Arabo-centrism in considerations of marriage by reinterpreting the legal doctrine of kafāʾa in the late 10th-11th centuries. Khurasanian Šāfiʿīs built upon but ultimately departed from the position of their colleagues in Iraq on Arab superiority: They formulated a new understanding of lineage which excluded considerations of ethnicity. The discussion of the doctrine of kafāʾa provides an example of how non-Arabs carved a place for themselves within an Islamic legal culture that originally disadvantaged them.

Personal Autonomy and Human Corporeality: What Protects the Right to Personal Integrity?

This paper discusses the controversial and evolving nature of the right to personal integrity in the context of modern legal discourse, with a specific focus on its intersection with bodily boundaries and bio- and digital technologies. It points out that the traditional understanding of this right may no longer be sufficient to protect individuals, especially given the advancements in digital technologies, the Internet of bodies (IoB), as well as the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.This research highlights the ongoing debate and legal complexities surrounding the right to personal integrity and personal autonomy, especially in the face of technological advancements, and suggests the need for a broader perspective to safeguard human dignity and physicality, both in the physical and digital domains. For these purposes, the evolving legal landscape is explored, with reference to the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).We believe that the classic concept of the right to personal integrity no longer ensures the security of the individual, and in order to achieve this goal, it is necessary to expand its scope taking into account the human dignity, especially in the context of the continuous progress of bio- and digital technologies.

A Right to Solidarity. World Ordering from the Margins through International Law?

Abstract In 2005, the United Nations (UN) created the Independent Expert on Human Rights and International Solidarity. The mandate holder works toward the establishment and promotion of the human right to solidarity. Usually, a right is regarded as something that people demand, and solidarity is something that people give regardless of legal obligations. Codifying solidarity in international law therefore seems paradoxical. Yet, as we show in this article, the initiative, driven by the G77, stands in a long tradition of attempts to transform the international order into a more just and equitable structure. We highlight its function as a possible means of world ordering from the margins. Through the voting power of a coalition of discontents—against the consistent resistance of Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries—in the General Assembly/the Human Rights Council, the mandate holder can use their marginal position in the UN bureaucracy to update discourses about a just international order by altering legal discourses in pursuit of the right to solidarity.

סוגיית העדפת בני המקום בהקצאות קרקע למגורים בסוגי יישוב שונים בישראל

The question of who has the right to reside in a particular locality has been at the center of public and legal discourse in Israel for many years. This is the result of official and unofficial mechanisms intended to exclude certain individuals or groups. This article deals with a related though different issue, which focuses on the preference given to locals during the allocation of state land. Addressing this question requires a discussion of issues such as individual freedom, the meaning of home, the importance of family, the significance of residency in a particular place, the nature of various types of settlements in Israel, justice in land distribution and the necessity of correcting of historical wrongs versus the perpetuation of existing social stratification, as well as the preservation of existing communities versus concerns about pushing them out of a neighborhood or settlement. After presenting a framework for thinking about the issue of preference of locals, the article conducts a critical examination of the existing legal framework in Israel in both rural areas, where the right of residency is managed by cooperative associations, and urban areas, which include, for this purpose, the settlements of minorities. The conclusion drawn from this analysis is that the same flaws in legal decision making with respect to acceptance by a settlement also exist in the regulation of the preference for locals. The social and economic outcomes that affect the lives of individuals and the distribution of land in Israel perpetuate established ways of thinking about forms of residency and about disparities and social differentiation in Israel.

Дискурсы примирения и проблемы институционализации примирительных процедур по уголовным делам

<p style="text-align: justify;">The global trend of development of new approaches in criminal proceedings, as well as the emerging domestic practice of restorative justice in the last two decades set objective prerequisites for the institutionalisation of conciliation procedures in criminal cases in Russian law. However, attempts to legislate them have not yet been successful. The author considers the clash of socio-cultural discourses as a key factor of resistance to innovation. The article analyses the difference between the understanding of reconciliation in the concept of restorative justice and the dominant legal discourse on reconciliation in criminal cases, and considers the main ideas of the draft laws developed by the initiative working group of the Public Centre for Judicial and Legal Reform in 2020 and 2021. It is shown that interpreting the characteristics of restorative justice in terms of unproblematised legal axioms contradicts the proposed initiatives. The identification of the discursive grounds behind the different positions, against the background of increasing recognition of the role of reconciliation procedures, is a prerequisite for improving the conceptual system that corresponds to the objectives of modern humanistic criminal justice.</p>

Korpusna kontrastivna analiza metaforičnih kolokacij izrazov <i>right</i> in <i>pravo</i>: ali različne pravne kulture ustvarjajo različne metafore?

The paper focuses on the contrastive analysis of metaphorical collocations of the nouns right and pravo in the web corpora of English and Croatian. It categorizes metaphorical collocations based on the Master Metaphor List (Lakoff, Espenson, and Schwarts 1991), and attempts to detect the similarities and differences in the cognitive structuring of the two terms. The paper is thus an attempt to investigate the metaphorical dimension of legal collocations, a perspective largely ignored to date in the study of collocations in legal discourse. By combining the corpusbased approach, which allows us to access a significant number of collocations, and using the Master Metaphor List, the paper reveals the network of conceptual mappings operating in the background of collocations and proposes that such cognitive structuring cuts across different legal cultures.

디지털 의료기기의 등장에 따른 법적 문제와 법제 개선에 관한 연구

This study aims to review and improve the current legal issues related to the emergence of Digital Therapeutics. First, we reviewed the scope of the Game Industry Promotion Act (Game Industry Act) and what regulations are made under the Game Industry Act. In particular, the scope of application of the Game Industry Act is the same as whether or not a game falls under Article 2(1) of the Game Industry Act, and we found that the concept of a game is used in a broad sense both in literature and in practice. In other words, there have been precedents in which content in the field of education and video, which has not traditionally been considered a game, that uses VR technology or has a game nature, has been considered a game under the Game Industry Act. In addition, after reviewing the concept of Digital Therapeutics and examining related laws such as the Digital Medical Products Act, we found that some of the Digital Therapeutics use VR technology or take the form of a game, so there is room for them to fall under the Game Industry Act, but there is no discussion of game products in the legal discussions related to Digital Therapeutics. Therefore, in order to ensure that Digital Therapeutics with game characteristics are appropriately regulated in the Korean legal system, it is necessary to introduce a new concept of 'Digital Therapeutics game product' in the Digital Medical Products Act, establish a classification system that considers the characteristics of both Digital Therapeutics and game products, and provide special provisions. In addition, it suggests that improvements should be made to medical treatment benefits and telemedicine related to digital medical device games.

Legal implications of using generative AI in the media

ABSTRACT Generative AI is increasingly being used, among others also in the professional media industry. This article provides an overview of the main ethical and legal challenges regarding content generated by, or with the help of generative AI. Among the ethical challenges, special attention is devoted to the development of journalistic standards. The legal discussion highlights the questions of civil and criminal responsibility regarding content, with a primary focus on the attribution of liability. It scrutinises the roles of deployers, assessing their contributions to the final product. It suggests that all human participants’ contributions should be accordingly acknowledged, potentially necessitating the creation of novel categories such as hybrid authorship and shared responsibility.

Politics of Secularisation, Religious Conversion, and “Saving” the (Hindu) Daughter under Hindutva: Re-reading the Hadiya Court Case

This article charts the different modalities of political transgression that marked an act of religious conversion and inter-faith marriage performed by a Muslim female subject in contemporary India, and the subsequent misreading of this transgression; a misreading made possible by liberal political thought’s delineations of the conceptual category of “interest”. Existing legal, political, academic, and popular discourses have read the prominent 2016 event of the conversion of a Hindu woman named Akhila into Islam, as either the “false consciousness” of a “vulnerable” individual whose self-interests were unintelligible to herself, or, as an unambiguous case of a “mature” woman in a “modernising” Kerala “choosing” to opt for an inter-faith marriage and to convert; a liberal idiom of choice that thereby needs to be safeguarded via Constitutional provisions. The article, even while acknowledging the political need to adhere to the latter reading/constitution of the female (Islamic) subject’s sovereign desire to convert, shows some of the limitations of both these ideologically antithetical positions. It argues that the desire of Hadiya (Akhila’s new name after converting to Islam) to convert remains unreadable by both the right-wing Indian judiciary, backed up by Hindutva forces, as well as the “left-liberal” feminist intelligentsia that sought to support her autonomy. In fact, both these ideologically opposed stances often legitimised each other. By examining the legal debates that took place in the Indian courts, the article shows how construing Hadiya’s act of conversion solely through the legal-juridical prisms of “religious freedom” and “choice”, pegged to the concept of self-interest, is vigorously insufficient.

II. In Civitate: Captivity and Inheritance in Tannaitic Halakha in Light of Roman Law

Summary The question of the influence of Roman law on tannaitic legal literature, composed in Roman Palestine from the first to the third centuries CE, is currently the focus of an intense scholarly debate. While some argue for a deep link between rabbinic and Roman legal discourse, others regard the impact of Roman law on the rabbis as merely superficial. The current article aims to contribute to this debate by presenting a case study that demonstrates a high level of engagement, by some rabbis, with Roman legal discourse, one that goes well beyond superficial borrowing. In this case study, a rabbinic ruling regarding the inheritance of captives is shown to depend heavily on Roman juristic discourse over the ramifications of the Lex Cornelia de captivis. In a sophisticated process of reworking, the rabbis adapt Roman legal materials and principles into a rabbinic framework. Most importantly, we show that this reworking includes the reappropriation of a native tannaitic term (‘in the medina’) in order to translate a Roman technical legal term (in civitate), infusing the Hebrew term with new legal meanings. The details of this case study reveal what is normally concealed: the self-awareness of the rabbis who handle a Roman legal literary source, most probably derived from a concrete juristic discourse, deliberately reworking it to accord with rabbinic terminology, style, and form. This was probably not a one-time process, and it could well have been standard practice among some of the rabbis. Thus, this case study suggests that the evidence for a dramatic impact of Roman legal discourse on tannaitic halakha might be hiding in plain sight.