About the IAFLL

Purpose & Aims

The purpose of the IAFLL is to improve the administration of the legal systems throughout the world by means of a better understanding of the interaction between language and the law. More specifically, the Association aims to promote:

• The study and analysis of the language used in the law, including the language of legal documents and texts; legal discourse; and the language used in courts, other adjudicative bodies, law-making bodies, policing, and the penal system
• Application of linguistics-based knowledge to issues and problems that may affect legal systems or be adjudicated within legal systems.
• Alleviation of language-based inequality and disadvantage in legal systems and institutions, including issues involving legal interpreting and legal translation.
• The interchange of ideas and information between the legal and linguistics communities.
• Research regarding best practices and professional ethical standards in expert testimony on linguistics-based issues and in other forms of presentation of linguistics evidence and knowledge in legal systems and to legal institutions.
• Promotion of better public understanding of the interaction between language and the law.
• Promotion of practices and policies designed to make legal practices and institutions more accurate, fair, and equitable, serving the public interests.

Further Aims

Furthering the interests of linguists engaged in research on the development and practice of forensic linguistics;

Disseminating knowledge about language analysis and its forensic applications among relevant professionals around the world;

Promoting a Code of Practice addressing such matters as giving testimony in court and writing official reports;

Collecting and making available computer corpora of matters of value to forensic researchers, such as confessions, suicide notes, and police interrogations.