Beyond court interpreters: Exploring the idea of designated spanish-speaking courtrooms to address language barriers to justice in the United States

Abstract

Language use is a highly controversial issue in the United States (Schmidt, 2000). Among all the linguistic access issues (e.g., bilingual education, multilingual ballots), however, the issue of access to justice is probably the least contentious. Most people in the United States seem to agree and appreciate the fact that access to justice premises on the ability of court users to understand the process in which they participate. The integrity of the legal process, particularly for the common law system (like the American legal system), which features an adversarial trial process, would be compromised if litigants were unable to communicate with or understand the judge, witnesses, or opposing parties or counsel. The guiding theory behind the common law is that adversarial trials set up two or more parties to be in conflict with one another in a zero-sum game; it is therefore important for all participating parties to be on equal footing (Thibaut & Walker, 1975).

Citation

Hang Ng, K. (2009), "Beyond court interpreters: Exploring the idea of designated spanish-speaking courtrooms to address language barriers to justice in the United States", Sandefur, R.L. (Ed.) Access to Justice (Sociology of Crime, Law and Deviance, Vol. 12), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 97-118. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1521-6136(2009)0000012008