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Common Law in an Uncommon Courtroom
Judicial interpreting in Hong Kong
This book takes you into a common-law courtroom which is in no way similar to any other courtroom where common law is practised. This uniqueness is characterised, in particular, by the use of English as the trial language in a predominantly Cantonese-speaking society and by the presence of other bilinguals in court, thus presenting specific challenges for the interpreters who work in it, and at times rendering the interpretation service superfluous. This study, inter alia, problematises judges’ intervention in the court proceedings, Chinese witnesses testifying in English, as well as English-language trials heard by Chinese jurors. It demonstrates how the use of chuchotage proves to be inadequate and inappropriate in the Hong Kong courtroom, where interpreting in an English-language trial is arguably provided to cater for the need of the linguistic majority. This book is useful to interpreters, language educators, legal professionals, forensic linguists and policy makers alike.
[Benjamins Translation Library, 144] 2018. xxvi, 226 pp.
Publishing status: Available
Published online on 6 November 2018
Published online on 6 November 2018
© John Benjamins
Table of Contents
- List of tables | pp. xiii–14
- List of figures | pp. xv–15
- Transcription symbols and abbreviations used in this book | pp. xvii–xviii
- Abbreviations used in the transcripts and in this book | pp. xix–20
- Acknowledgements | pp. xxi–xxii
- Foreword
- Chapter 1. Introduction | pp. 1–10
- Chapter 2. The practice of court interpreting in Hong Kong | pp. 11–38
- Chapter 3. Modes of interpretation and audience roles in interpreted trial discourse | pp. 39–48
- Chapter 4. The interpreter as one of the bilinguals in court | pp. 49–71
- Chapter 5. Interpreter intervention in witness examination | pp. 73–90
- Chapter 6. Judges’ intervention in witness examination | pp. 91–110
- Chapter 7. Chinese witnesses testifying in English | pp. 111–128
- Chapter 8. English trials heard by Chinese jurors | pp. 129–146
- Chapter 9. Who is speaking? Court interpreters’ use of first-person versus third-person interpreting | pp. 147–170
- Chapter 10. Conclusions | pp. 171–190
- References
- Appendices
- Appendix 1. Timeline of the use of Chinese in courts | p. 205
- Appendix 2. Percentage of criminal cases conducted in Chinese in various courts | pp. 207–208
- Appendix 3. Scale points for Court Interpreter and Simultaneous Interpreter under the Master Pay Scale for Civil Servants | pp. 209–210
- Appendix 4. Transcript of the exchanges between the judge, the court clerk and the foreman of the jury, interspersed with remarks of the defence counsel | pp. 211–216
- Appendix 5. Questionnaire on The use of direct or reported speech in court interpreting | pp. 217–220
- Index | pp. 221–226
“This informative book on an important subject will contribute to the body of court interpreting literature and will benefit researchers, students of interpreting and forensic linguistics, and legal and interpreting professionals.”
Ludmila Stern, University of New South Wales, in Interpreting 22:1 (2020)
Cited by (8)
Cited by eight other publications
Ng, Eva N. S.
Yi, Ran
Angermeyer, Philipp Sebastian
Monteoliva-García, Eloísa
2020. The collaborative and selective nature of interpreting in police interviews with stand-by interpreting. Interpreting. International Journal of Research and Practice in Interpreting 22:2 ► pp. 262 ff.
Ng, Eva
2020. Linguistic disadvantage before the law. In Interpreting in legal and healthcare settings [Benjamins Translation Library, 151], ► pp. 21 ff.
Ng, Eva
2023. The right to a fair trial and the right to interpreting. Interpreting. International Journal of Research and Practice in Interpreting 25:1 ► pp. 87 ff.
Ng, Eva & Ineke Crezee
2020. Interpreting in legal and healthcare settings. In Interpreting in legal and healthcare settings [Benjamins Translation Library, 151], ► pp. 1 ff.
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