Videoconference and Remote Interpreting

INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM

Videoconference and remote interpreting in legal proceedings

London, 17th-19th February 2011

The judicial services throughout Europe are currently implementing videoconference technology to facilitate communication at all stages of legal proceedings. In the area of criminal justice, for example, the emerging settings include videoconferences with witnesses, experts or suspects abroad as well as video links between courts or police stations and prisons. Videoconference technology is also used in asylum/immigration contexts and other legal settings. Any of these settings may be multilingual - involving more than one spoken language or a spoken language and a sign language - and thus entail the integration of an interpreter into the videoconference situation ('videoconference interpreting'). Additionally, videoconference technology offers a potential solution for current problems with the provision of qualified legal interpreters, especially for minority languages. Thus, 'remote interpreting' via video link, using interpreters at distant locations, possibly abroad, is also gaining momentum in legal proceedings. Encouraged by the European 'e-Justice' initiative, which recommends the use of videoconferencing to speed up legal proceedings and to save costs, the area of legal videoconferencing is likely to expand in the future. While these developments are changing the practice of legal interpreting, knowledge about the viability and quality of videoconference and remote interpreting is scarce, and training for interpreters and legal practitioners on these emerging forms of interpreting is almost non-existent.

This International Symposium, organised by the EU project AVIDICUS (project leader: Centre for Translation Studies, University of Surrey, 2008-11), co-ordinated by Dr Sabine Braun, seeks to disseminate the findings of the AVIDICUS project and other ongoing project initiatives relating to the use of videoconference and remote interpreting in all types of legal proceedings. It will include reports on current practice and presentation of findings from the small but growing body of research in this area.

The Symposium, which is the first its kind, will provide a forum for discussion and bring together:

legal professionals and public service providers
practising interpreters and interpreting service providers
representatives of interpreting service users
researchers in the field of legal interpreting including spoken-language and sign-language interpreting
specialists in the use of videoconference technology
representatives of educational and training institutions