Ireland's District Court: Language, immigration and consequences for justice
Kate Waterhouse
Abstract
For the uninitiated, the Irish District Court is a place of incomprehensible, organised chaos. This detailed account of the court’s criminal proceedings, based on an original study that involved observing hundreds of cases, aims to demystify the mayhem and provide the reader with descriptions of language, participant discourse and procedure in criminal cases. The book also captures an important change in the District Court: the advent of the immigrant or the Limited-English-proficient (LEP) defendant. It traces the rise of these defendants and explores the issues involved in ensuring access to ... More
For the uninitiated, the Irish District Court is a place of incomprehensible, organised chaos. This detailed account of the court’s criminal proceedings, based on an original study that involved observing hundreds of cases, aims to demystify the mayhem and provide the reader with descriptions of language, participant discourse and procedure in criminal cases. The book also captures an important change in the District Court: the advent of the immigrant or the Limited-English-proficient (LEP) defendant. It traces the rise of these defendants and explores the issues involved in ensuring access to justice across languages. It also provides an original description of LEP defendants and interpreters in District Court proceedings, ultimately considering how they have altered the District Court as an institution and how the characteristics of the District Court affect the ability of limited English proficient defendants to access justice at this level of the Irish courts system.
Keywords:
Irish District Court,
Criminal justice,
Limited English proficient defendant,
District Court process,
Criminal procedure,
Access to justice,
Court interpreting,
Interpreting,
Legal language,
Discourse
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2014 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780719095276 |
| Published to Manchester Scholarship Online: January 2015 |
DOI:10.7228/manchester/9780719095276.001.0001 |
