17th Biennial Conference of the International Association for Forensic & Legal Linguistics (IAFLL)
Hosted by the University of the Western Cape (UWC), Cape Town, South Africa
30th June- 4th July 2025
Theme: Transformative Justice Through A Forensic And Legal Linguistics Lens
Venue: Cape Town, South Africa
FIRST CALL FOR PAPERS
SUBMISSION DEADLINE: 29 November 2024
Confirmed panel discussions:
There will be five panel discussions, scheduled for the duration of the conference. There will be no parallel sessions or workshops during panel discussions. Each panel will comprise of 4 panellists. The panels are an opportunity for emerging scholars and legal professionals to share innovative research and provide insights from various legal systems. The panellists will be announced in due course. The five panel themes are:
- Courtroom discourse (language of record) and legal education.
- Gender Based Violence, vulnerable witnesses and sex crimes.
- Hate speech and hate crimes.
- Police statement taking and investigations.
- Interpreting, translation and technology.
Abstract information:
We recommend that those who need to apply for a visa or for funding should submit their abstracts during the first call in order to receive an early confirmation of acceptance, although authors who submit abstracts during the second call for papers will not be disadvantaged in any way.
We invite abstract submissions for PAPERS, POSTERS and WORKSHOPS, in English, isiXhosa or Afrikaans, dealing with but not limited to the following themes:
Legal Languages:
- The history of legal languages
- Language of record and proceedings
- The role of literacy in legal languages
- Language education for legal professionals
Courtroom Discourse:
- Courtroom, police and prison discourse
- Legal interpreting and translation
- Police statement taking
- Investigative interviewing
- Multilingual matters in legal contexts
- Intercultural communication
- Power and the law
- The comprehensibility of legal documents
- Interviewing vulnerable witnesses
- Child witnesses
Language minorities and the legal system:
- Linguistic disadvantage before the law
- Language rights
- Human rights matters
- Language of justice for foreign and international witnesses
- Asylum seekers
Law and language in legislation and policies:
- Language policy and language rights
- Acts, policies and constitutional frameworks safeguarding language rights
- Legal organisations and state institutions maintaining justice systems
Linguistic evidence and investigative linguistics:
- The linguist as an expert witness
- Forensic phonetics and speaker identification
- Forensic stylistics
- Authorship analysis
- Plagiarism
- Trademark disputes
- Consumer product warnings
- Deception and fraud
- Computational forensic linguistics
Crime, gender based violence and linguistic evidence:
- Sex crimes
- Hate crimes
- Hate speech
- Cybercrime
- Emojis
- Medical negligence
Abstracts must be submitted using the online Jotform, accessible through this link:
https://www.jotform.com/form/242762326926058
Acceptance of abstracts will happen continuously. Delegates are encouraged to submit timeously.
Submission Deadline: Friday, 29 November 2024.
Notification of abstract acceptance: Friday, 13 December 2024.
Abstracts for individual papers must be no longer than 300 words including references. Individual papers will be allocated 20 minutes for presentation and an additional 10 minutes for questions. Abstracts may be submitted in isiXhosa or Afrikaans. Please note that you will be required to upload an English translated abstract at the time of your submission.
Abstracts for posters must be no longer than 300 words including references. Posters will be displayed for the duration of the conference. Please note you will be responsible for printing your own poster. Boards will be provided for your poster to be displayed. Posters must be A2 in size. Posters may be in English, isiXhosa or Afrikaans. Please note you will need to upload an English translated abstract at the time of your submission.
Workshop proposals must be no longer than 500 words including references. Please note that only two workshop proposals will be selected given that we will have 5 panel discussions as well. Workshop proposals may be submitted in isiXhosa or Afrikaans, but you will be required to also upload an English translated proposal at the time of your submission.
Official language(s) of the conference: English is the official language of the conference with the inclusion of isiXhosa and Afrikaans for all presentations, posters and workshops.
Organised by: University of the Western Cape, South Africa.
Organising Committee: Zakeera Docrat (Co-Chair), Russell Kaschula (Co-Chair), Monwabisi Ralarala, Annelise de Vries, Mantoa Motinyane, Nomfundo Mali, Paul Svongoro, Laurian Lesch, Karien Brits, Grace Naidoo, Nokuzola Lusani, Melody Williams.
Contact: info@aafll.co.za