Digital humanities, inclusion, and accessibility in legal language

Call for papers

Special Issue of: Comparative Legilinguistics – International Journal for Legal Communication

On

Digital humanities, inclusion, and accessibility in legal language

Guest editors

Michele Mannoni, University of Verona, Italy

Silvia Cavalieri, University of Verona, Italy

 

Topics of the Special Issue

Authors are invited to submit articles that discuss the possible interactions between legal language and digital humanities and/or inclusion and accessibility. The submitted chapters should thus fall within one of the following areas:

  • Legal language/translation & digital humanities
  • Legal language/translation & inclusion and accessibility
  • Legal language/translation & digital humanities & inclusion and accessibility

 

Overview

This special issue of Comparative Legilinguistics – International Journal for Legal Communication focusses on the areas of intersection between legal language and digital humanities and/or inclusion and accessibility.

Digital humanities can be defined as the integration of humanities disciplines, including legal linguistics and translation, with tools provided by computing (e.g., statistics, data mining, data visualisation, software programmes, digital databases, corpora, etc.). Authors choosing to focus on digital humanities are expected to exemplify how the use of digital tools contributes to their research in any of the areas whereby language and law intersect. Methodological studies highlighting the benefits (or even the risks) of using tools provided by computing to study legal language are particularly welcome.

A different yet sometimes connected emerging field of scholarly enquiry in legilinguistics is inclusion, to be intended here as inclusion of the vulnerable, meaning that vulnerable people have the rights and the possibilities of enjoying every aspect of life just like non-vulnerable people have. The expression “vulnerable person” is a broad notion that refers to “minors, unaccompanied minors, disabled people, elderly people, pregnant women, single parents with minor children, victims of human trafficking, persons with serious illnesses, persons with mental disorders and persons who have been subjected to torture, rape or other serious forms of psychological, physical or sexual violence, such as victims of female genital mutilation” (Directive 2013/33/EU). Inclusion of the vulnerable is a social commitment that can be achieved by designing environments that are accessible to everyone, regardless of their abilities. Is the language used in the legal setting accessible to anyone? What does a (critical) legal linguistic analysis of the laws for the protection of the vulnerable reveal about the attitude of the government towards them? What is the discourse about the vulnerable in law like? How can digital tools make the law more inclusive and accessible? These are but a few questions with which legal linguists are invited to engage.

Disciplines of interest

The journal welcomes studies adhering to any field of scholarly enquiry that focus on the way language and law interact, including but not limited the following:

  • Legal and forensic linguistics
  • Legal translation and interpreting studies
  • Legal discourse studies
  • Legal terminology
  • Legal semiotics
  • Language law and policy

 

Scientific committee

Aleksandra Matulewska, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poland

Emilia Wojtasik-Dziekan, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poland

Federica Monti, University of Macerata, Italy

Joanna Kic-Drgas, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poland

Joanna Nowak-Michalska, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poland

Katia Peruzzo, University of Trieste, Italy

Lara Colangelo, University of Chieti-Pescara, Italy

Sara D’Attoma, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy

Tanina Zappone, University of Turin, Italy

Important dates

  • Deadline for submission of abstracts (max. 500 words + references): May 31, 2023

Abstracts should be submitted to michele.mannoni@univr.it and silvia.cavalieri@univr.it (please use “Abstract IJLC dh and inclusion” as the  subject head of your email).

  • Notification of acceptance/rejection: June 30, 2023
  • Deadline for submission of full papers: January 8, 2024

Please follow the guidelines for submissions that you can find here: https://pressto.amu.edu.pl/index.php/cl/about/submissions

While the journal welcomes articles focussing on any language of interest, including dead languages, sign languages, artificial languages, etc., examples need to be translated into English, if not glossed by using the Leipzig rules.

  • Peer reviewers’ acceptance/rejection: June 30, 2024
  • Publication: end of 2024.