法言語学の成立と学会の誕生 : 法と言語 学会設立の背景と経緯

要旨

Coined by Jan Svartvic, `forensic linguistics' is the study of language in legal courtrooms. This discipline was born in 1968 and the International Association of Forensic Linguists was established in Birmingham, England, in 1991. Japanese research on language and the law has become active only recently, and the Japan Association for Language and Law ( JALL) was formed in Tokyo on the 17th of May, 2009, four days before the new trial system including both professional and lay judges was due to come into force in Japan. 48 participants attended the founding meeting, which featured a distinguished guest speaker from Australia : Professor John Gibbons of Western Sydney University. The present paper describes the background and details of this new academic body : its membership, the fields with which it plans to engage, and the significance of forensic linguistics research. As of the 26th of June, 2009, 30 people have formally joined JALL, their principal interests being in legal language, legal interpretation, and linguistic evidence in trial proceedings. The Association would also like to welcome as members those engaged in research work on such topics as legal translation, "language crimes", communication problems in legal discourse, teaching language for legal purposes, and the history of forensic linguistics. The membership of JALL includes linguistics and legal scholars as well as practicing lawyers, allowing them to enjoy interdisciplinary approaches and inter-professional exchanges. Professor Mami Okawara of Takasaki University of Economics was elected the Association's founding president, and the present author is one of its six trustees. As well as holding its annual convention and several research meetings each year, the Association will publish the annual Journal of the JALL. For further details, please contact Professor Shogo Hotta at the School of Law of Meiji University in Tokyo.

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