Judges and the Understanding of Language Issues

International study days led by Agnès Whitfield (York University, Toronto, Canada – researcher in residence at Maison Suger) in collaboration with Maison Suger and the Fondation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme.

In French and English

At a time when the rights of linguistic minorities are increasingly under threat and when migration flows are confronting local judicial systems with litigants speaking an ever-wider range of languages, research and sensitisation efforts in the areas of legal translation and interpreting and linguistic rights are particularly urgent.

These study days bring together translation scholars, translators and interpreters, judges, lawyers and representatives of public institutions and organisations that assist litigants to explore how a better understanding of language, translation and interpretation issues by judges could improve access to justice for litigants who do not speak the majority language of the court. More specifically, by facilitating productive dialogue among the various stakeholders, they seek to identify:

1. What such an understanding on the part of judges should entail.
2. How effective training in this area could be designed and delivered.

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→ Read the full abstract

TUESDAY MAY 19, 2026

9:30 AM – 10 AM: Welcome

10:00 AM – 10:30 AM: Workshop Presentation

• Gwenaëlle Leonus Lieppe, Director, Maison Suger
• Agnès Whitfield, Workshop organiser, York University, Canada

10:30 AM – 11:30 AM: Legislation, translation/interpretation, systemic issues

• Court interpreting in Spain: Legal framework and perspectives for minority languages, María Pilar Castillo Bernal and Carmen Expósito Castro, Universidad de Córdoba, Spain
• Translation awareness in the Austrian judicial sphere: Building foundations, raising the bar, David Weiss, Universität Graz, Austria

11:30 AM – 12:30 PM: Language issues/judicial implications

• Integrating law and corpus-assisted discourse analysis for the benefit of human rights, Chiara Sarni, Università degli studi di Udine/Trieste, Italy
• Understanding the legal interpreter’s listening process and how to support it, Anu Viljanmaa, Tampereen yliopisto, Finland

12:30 PM – 13:45 PM: Lunch on site

13:45 PM – 15:15 PM: Language rights/linguistic issues

• Le dialogue interprofessionnel entre le juge et le traducteur, Agata de la Forcade, ISIT, Paris-Panthéon Assas, France
• Qui est visé ? L’interprétation judiciaire de la cible dans les discours de haine, Anna Arzoumanov, Sorbonne Université, France
• « Je parle le français sauf au tribunal », Pratiques langagières de mineurs en contact avec la justice et enjeux de l’interaction en milieu institutionnel, Michelle Auzanneau, Université Paris Cité, France

15:15 PM – 15:30 PM: Break

15:30 PM – 16:30 PM: Professional issues and university research

• Cyberjustice, intelligence artificielle et accès à la justice, Karim Benyekhlef, Laboratoire de cyberjustice, Université de Montréal, Canada
• Legal Interpreting Research for the Real World: Practitioners, Academics, and Access to Justice, Aída Martínez-Gómez, CUNY et Melissa Wallace, University of Texas at San Antonio, USA

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WEDNESDAY MAY 20, 2026

9:00 AM – 9:30 AM: Welcome coffee

9:30 AM – 11:00 AM: Law and multilingualism

• The challenges and opportunities for law and/as translation in superdiverse legal orders, Maria Rosario Martín Ruano, Universidad de Salamanca, Espagne
• Conscience juridique et multilinguisme formel des ordres juridiques : le cas du Canada, Jean-François Gaudreault-Desbiens, Université de Montréal, Canada
• Language and applications at the European Court of Human Rights, Hakan Kaplankaya, Conseiller juridique principal, Association européenne pour la défense des droits et des libertés (ASSEDEL)

11:00 AM – 11:15 AM: Break

11:15 AM – 12:15 PM: Interprofessional training and contextual issues

• From Classroom to Courtroom and Police Academy: Interprofessional Legal Interpreter Training, Heidi Salaets and Katalin Balogh, KU Leuven, Belgique
• Training interpreters and users of interpreters in field and fact-finding missions, Lucía Ruiz Rosendo, Université de Genève, Suisse

12:15 PM – 13:30 PM: Lunch on site

13:30 PM – 14:30 PM: Language competencies

• Comprendre pour juger : représentation des événements, variation linguistique et enjeux cognitifs en contexte judiciaire, Eva Soroli, Université de Lille, France
• Arrimage entre les critères d’évaluation de la compétence langagière et les besoins du milieu juridique : quelques réflexions provenant du contexte canadien, Monika Jezak, Université d’Ottawa, Canada

14:30 PM – 15:30 PM: Professional and interprofessional perspectives

• Contexte et objectifs des projets terminologiques interculturels des Maisons de la Sagesse – Cercle des traducteurs, Marie Thérèse Cerf, Maisons de la Sagesse, France
• Enjeux juridiques, linguistiques et culturels de la préparation d’un glossaire français-persan de l’administration française, Me Amir Zandi, juriste, Morocco

15:30 PM – 15:45 PM: Break

15 :45 PM – 16:45 PM: Professional and interdisciplinary perspectives

• Défis et contextes professionnels, Victor Hugo Sajoza Juric, Présidente, Comité permanente sur la traduction juridique, Fédération internationale des traducteurs (FIT), Argentina
• Forensic linguistics and pragmatic consequences of interpreting modes, Philipp Sebastian Angermeyer, York University, Canada

16:45 PM – 17:15 PM: Closing session and perspectives for the future

→ Download the program