The field of forensic linguistics is a niche area that has not enjoyed much participation from the African continent. The theme of language and the law in this book is one that straddles two important aspects of the legal history of South Africa in particular, and how it has impacted on the country?s legal and education systems. The declaration, by the United Nations, of 2019 as ?The International Year of Indigenous Languages? is opportune, not only for the launch of this book, but for what its research content tells us of the strides taken in ensuring access to justice for all citizens of the world in a language they understand. The contributions by authors in this book tell the story of many African citizens, and those hailing from beyond our borders, who straddle the challenges of linguistic and legal pluralism in courtrooms across their respective countries. It is our hope that the contributions made in this book will assist in ensuring human rights become a reality for global citizens where indigenous voices have not been heard; and that these citizens will be free to give their testimonies in a language of their choice, and that they may be heard and understood.

Language and the Law: Global Perspectives in Forensic Linguistics from Africa and beyond is the third volume in a series of books designed to contribute and respond to growing interest in forensic linguistics or language and the law on the African continent. Drawing mostly on contexts where traditional African laws and Western laws are practised side-by-side, and where there are discontinuities between local knowledge systems, belief systems and language practices on the one hand, and official languages of law discourse, conceptualisation and jurisprudence documentation on the other, the chapters in this volume problematise, among other issues, the mediation practices (or lack thereof) of language and legal processes, discourse strategies and complexities in (mis)interpretations in second language court contexts and the miscarriage of justice that these may entail.

This Element presents an account of forensic linguistics in Australia since the first expert linguistic evidence in 1959, through early work in the 1970s-1980s, the defining of the discipline in the 1990s, and into the current era. It starts with a consideration of some widespread misconceptions about language that affect the field and some problematic ideologies in the law, which underly much of the discussion throughout the Element. The authors' report of forensic linguists' work is structured in terms of the linguistic, interactional and sociocultural contexts of the language data being analysed, whether in expert evidence, in research, or in practical applications of linguistics in a range of legal settings. The Element concludes by highlighting mutual engagement between forensic linguistic practitioners and both the judiciary and legal scholars, and outlines some of the key factors which support a critical forensic linguistics approach in much of the work in the authors' country.

Researching Forensic Linguistics is an informative, hands-on guide to conducting research in forensic linguistics that can underpin legal and justice practices and address social justice problems involving language. Georgina Heydon takes readers step by step through the research process using case studies that draw on different types of forensic and legal language data such as police interviews, anonymous reports of sexual assault, threatening letters and justice stakeholder interviews. Each chapter is framed by a language problem arising from either forensic linguistic case work or a key issue in language and the law. Up-to-date research methods in forensic linguistics are presented, including authorship attribution using online corpora, practice-based linguistic analysis and experimental techniques. This is an ideal companion for linguists who want to apply their skills to a forensic setting, practitioners in the legal and justice fields seeking to understand how linguistic analysis can support their work, and any student undertaking research in forensic linguistics within English language, linguistics, applied linguistics and legal studies.

A Handbook on Legal Languages and the Quest for Linguistic Equality in South Africa and Beyond is an interdisciplinary publication located in the discipline of forensic linguistics/ language and law. This handbook includes varying comparative African and global case studies on the use of language(s) in courtroom discourse and higher education institutions: Kenya; Morocco; Nigeria; Australia; Belgium Canada and India. These African and global case studies form the backdrop for the critique of the monolingual English language of record policy for South African courts, the core of this handbook, discussed in relation to case law and the beleaguered legal interpretation profession. This handbook argues that linguistic transformation and decolonisation of South Africa’s legal and higher education systems needs to be undertaken where legal practitioners are linguistically equipped to litigate in a bilingual/ multilingual courtroom that enables access to justice for the majority of African language speaking litigants, enforcing their constitutional language rights.

A revised and updated edition of John Olsson's practical introduction to Forensic Lingusitics. Provides essential reading for students and researchers approaching this branch of linguistics for the first time.

Now in its third edition, this practical introduction to forensic linguistics is required reading for students of language and the law. It includes: new chapters on identifying forensic texts and important interactional aspects of the language used in legal contexts an additional chapter on forensic phonetics by Harry Hollien, a world renowned forensic phonetician an appendix of forensic texts for student study, and even more exercises and suggestions for further reading a companion website with a repository of statements, notes and examples referred to throughout the text.