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Department of Linguistics

Professor Christopher N Candlin

Recent Research Projects

Generic Integrity in Legal Discourse in Multilingual and Multicultural Contexts

(A CERG Project funded by the UGC Research Grant Council, Hong Kong (CityU 1108/99h)

This project focused on the generic integrity of legal language used in multilingual and multicultural arbitration contexts by analysing international arbitration laws from a number of countries, including Brazil, People’s Republic of China, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, and South Africa. The analysis focused on the linguistic and discourse properties of these laws written in different languages, cultures and legal systems.

The research was meant to contribute to the basic knowledge of legal language seen from an international perspective, an underpinning for international policy and grounding for arbitration practice, and practitioner training.

The main objectives of the project thus were

  • to contribute to the basic knowledge of legal language across languages, cultures, and legal systems;
  • to investigate the generic integrity of legislative documents used in multinational and multilingual contexts;
  • to enhance understanding of the way legal language is written, interpreted and used in international arbitration contexts so as to assist legal writers, translators, and arbitration practitioners to function more effectively.

The research project highlighted the validity of the generic integrity hypothesis, focusing in particular on the interplay between genre, linguistic realisation and underpinning legal systems, and philosophies and practices of law in different societies.

The outcome of the project includes five edited collections of papers and one special issue of an international journal. The project also organised two international conferences, one in Hong Kong, and the other in Rome, in addition to organising three symposia as parts of different conferences, and several individual papers given at international conferences.

INVESTIGATORS

Principal Investigators:

Prof. Vijay K. Bhatia, Department of English and Communication, City University of Hong Kong
Prof. Christopher N. Candlin, Senior Research Professor,  Department of Linguistics,
Macquarie University, Sydney

Co-Investigators:

Professor D. K. Srivastava, School of Law, City University of Hong Kong
Dr. K. K. Sin, Department of CTL, City University of Hong Kong

For a full list of international sites and participants, please see the Website:

http://www.cityu.edu.hk/

PUBLICATIONS

The list of the publications and research output from the project is now available. For information consult the project website and/or directly to ccandlin@optusnet.com.au

 

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