O centru / About the Centre
The Centre for Language and Law:
General Objectives
The Centre for Language and Law is an organizational unit of the Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb, with the legal status of a faculty branch.
It is intended to:
* bring together scholars with an interest in the interface between law and language,
* to provide a platform for interdisciplinary interaction and to explore opportunities for collaborative and comparative initiatives in this field, and
*to disseminate the outcomes of related curriculum development and research projects.
The Centre was initiated in January 2007 within the framework of the European Tempus project
"Foreign Languages in the Field of Law" (Coordinator: Faculty of Law, Zagreb, Grantholder: University of Antwerp) in cooperation with the Law Faculties of Osijek, Rijeka and Split, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Zagreb, the Ministry of Justice /Judicial Academy, Zagreb, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration, Zagreb, the Universities of Antwerp, Innsbruck, London (South Bank), Mannheim and Paris (Pantheon-Assas, Paris II) and the Forensic Linguistics Institute, Wales.
Teaching
The Centre organizes highly professional work in the teaching of languages for special purposes, and will more particularly:
* ensure continuous teacher training in foreign languages for law by organising workshops in all related fields;
* update and develop foreign language curricula and teaching methodology on BA and MA levels at Croatian law faculties according to the Bologna requirements
* introduce intensive language training courses for legal practitioners within the framework of lifelong learning;
* establish and maintain the necessary hardware and software for computer assisted language learning;
* organize lectures on law related subjectgs in foreign languages
Service
The Centre acts as host to:
(1) The research project Legal and Linguistic Aspects of Multilingualism sponsored by the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports of the Republic of Croatia;
(2) The Eurolinguistic Network South-East (ENSE)
Research
The Centre conducts scientific research for the teaching of languages for specific purposes (law) and other law-related linguistic fields, including:
* language education for law professionals (curriculum development, teaching methods, materials, sources);
* analysis of legal discourse in different legal cultures;
* legal terminology and lexicology;
* legal translation and court interpreting;
* legal drafting and transparency;
* legal and linguistic aspects of multilingualism;
* intercultural communication;
* forensic linguistics;
* other related fields.
The Centre organizes conferences and workshops in the above mentioned fields of research.
Research Project
Legal and Linguistic Aspects of Multilingualism
The project comprises interdisciplinary theoretical and applied studies of legal and linguistic aspects of multilingualism in general, focusing on the EU and Croatia.
Theoretical research includes issues such as:
* language policies and planning in the EU;
* the status of Croatian and its relations with other European languages, with an emphasis on the relationship between language and identity;
* linguistic rights as a category of human rights;
* the actual status of minority and regional languages in the EU and Croatia in a comparative perspective;
* the status of immigrant languages;
* intercultural communication, especially in the context of the four freedoms in the EU law
Project director:
Dr. Lelija Sočanac
Croatian collaborators:
Dr. Dragica Bukovčan, Zagreb
Dr. Andrea Horić, Zagreb
Marijana Javornik-Čubrić, Zagreb
Dr. Ljubica Kordić, Osijek
Magdalena Nigoević, Split
Prof. Dr. Siniša Rodin, Zagreb
Dr. Orsolya Žagar-Szentesi, Zagreb
International collaborators:
Prof.Dr. Ludger Kremer, Antwerp (Belgium)
Antonia Blasina Miseri, Gorizia (Italy)
Prof.Dr. Heinrich Michael Pfandl, Graz (Austria)
Prof. Dr.Nada Šabec, Maribor (Slovenia)
Prof. Dr. Sture Ureland, Mannheim (Germany)
Eurolinguistic Network South-East
(ENSE)
ENSE is an informal network of scholars active in the field of Eurolinguistics. It is a member of the
Eurolinguistic Association (ELA) with the present seat in Mannheim (Germany).
The aims of ENSE are the advancement, representation, and co-ordination of Eurolinguistics in South-Eastern Europe in an interdisciplinary context, more specifically:
* the study of multilingualism as a subject of research and as a factor of glottogenesis both synchronically and diachronically;
* the study of contacts between languages and linguistic properties common to European languages which reflect such contacts;
* language typology both in a synchronic and diachronic perspective;
* the study of European languages in a global context
* the promotion of multilingual programmes for language learning and teaching.
Members are invited to the annual Eurolinguistic Symposium and receive the Eurolinguistic Newsletter published by the Eurolinguistic Association
Centre for Language and Law
Coordinator:
Dr. Lelija Sočanac
Managerial Board:
Aleksandra Čar
Dr. Andrea Horić
Marijana Javornik-Čubrić
Prof. Dr. Ksenija Turković
Advisory Board:
Prof. Dr. Ludger Kremer, University of Antwerp
Dr. John Olsson, Forensic Linguistics Institute, Wales
Dr. Peter Sandrini, University of Innsbruck
Prof. Dr. Susan Šarčević, Rijeka
Prof.Dr. Andy Unger, London South Bank University
Prof.Dr. Sture Ureland, University of Mannheim
Address:
Centre for Language and Law
Faculty of Law
Gundulićeva 10
10000 Zagreb
Croatia
Tel. 00385 1 48 90 204
e-mail: lelijasocanac@yahoo.com
