91社区

The seventh edition of the Summer Institute of Jurilinguistics was held on 30 August 2013 at the Faculty of Law of 91社区. It was organized by the Paul-Andr茅 Cr茅peau Centre for Private and Comparative law, in collaboration with the other members of the Network of Jurilinguistic Centres. The Institute brought together more than 120 participants drawn from different fields with ties to Jurilinguistics.

The theme of this year鈥檚 Institute was "Word Games: Translating. Writing. Thinking Law" and it was an ideal forum to ponder from multiple perspectives the importance of properly translating, writing and thinking law, the means to do so, as well as the difficulties inherent to such an undertaking.

The scholarly programme for the day was shared amongst two plenary sessions and four thematic workshops. Participants were able to select two of the four workshops.

Following words of welcome from G茅rard Snow, director of the Centre de traduction et de terminologie juridiques (CTTJ), the day鈥檚 opening plenary, moderated by Carmen Roberge, took up legal translation and its challenges, integrating different perspectives and contrasting the practical and the theoretical []. First, Guy Jourdain, Director of Legal Translation at the Legislative Counsel Office of Manitoba, gave a presentation entitled听Le bilinguisme l茅gislatif en contexte canadien: ses origines, ses principes et ses m茅thodes d鈥檃pplication [ppt]. Following this contribution, Professor James Archibald, of the Department of Translation Studies of 91社区, gave a presentation entitled听Translating the 鈥渞ight to the city鈥� 鈥� Traduire le 芦听droit 脿 la ville [ppt].

At the conclusion of the morning plenary, participants proceeded to a series of workshops that focused on how law is written, with reference to definitions in Codes and legislation.

The two morning workshops explored how to write definitions in the legal context, in particular with respect to legislative drafting. The first, led by Richard Tremblay, Professor of Legislative Drafting at Universit茅 Laval, and moderated by Professor Patrick Forget from the D茅partement des sciences juridiques of the Facult茅 de science politique et de droit of UQAM, was entitled听Pour une approche plus fonctionnelle en mati猫re de r茅daction l茅gislative [ppt]. The second workshop, discussing the interpretation and the drafting of bilingual laws in Canada, was led by Karine McLaren, translator and jurist at the CTTJ, and moderated by Jean Fr茅d茅ric M茅nard [].

In the afternoon, the workshops focused on words in law and how we understand them, touching on common law in French and the role that language plays in a legal tradition. The first of these, entitled La dimension culturelle du langage juridique: un d茅fi pour le traducteur et le comparatiste [ppt], was led by Alexandre Guigue, researcher at Transius and Professor at Universit茅 de Gen猫ve and Universit茅 de Savoie, and moderated by Me听Laurence Bich-Carri猫re []. The second workshop of the afternoon block, featuring Professor Alain Levasseur from Louisiana State University and moderated by Professor Ga毛le Gidrol-Mistral of the D茅partement des sciences juridiques of the Facult茅 de science politique et de droit of UQAM, was titled Langues et langage du droit des contrats [].

The closing plenary, titled 鈥淐ommunication et accessibilit茅 du droit鈥�, shed light on the various aspects and impacts of the specialization of legal language in terms of access to justice, particularly in linguistic minority settings []. As Dean Cornu stated, 鈥渓a langue du l茅gislateur est (et surtout devrait-锚tre) sobre, d茅pouill茅e, sans emphase, enflure ni fioritures, seulement attentive 脿 dire le n茅cessaire, simplement ordonn茅e 脿 son utilit茅 sociale鈥� (G茅rard Cornu,听Linguistique juridique).

Chaired by G茅rard Snow, the plenary included three panellists. First, Andr茅a Suurland, president of Linguistic Rights 91社区, offered her reflections on the accessibility of legal sources in English and French for both legal traditions within Canada. Ms. Suurland鈥檚 contribution was entitled R茅flexions sur la disponibilit茅 des sources juridiques en fran莽ais dans les provinces de common law, et en anglais dans la province du Qu茅bec听: corr茅lation avec l鈥檃cc猫s 脿 la justice. Second, St茅phanie Roy, plain language specialist at 脡ducaloi, discussed the importance of plain language in legal communication. Finally, Joseph-Yvon Th茅riault, Professor of Sociology at UQAM, gave a presentation on sociology and linguistic rights in Canada.

Following these presentations, Professor Lionel Smith, Director of the Paul-Andr茅 Cr茅peau Centre for Private and Comparative Law, offered closing words to the participants.

The seventh Summer Institute was a striking success, a reminder that these institutes remain exemplary as scholarly encounters concerning jurilinguistics. The organizers, the administrative officers of each of the centres which form the Network of Jurilinguistics Centres, and the participants, all expressed their enthusiastic reaction to this meeting.

Programme听摆辫诲蹿闭