Forensic Linguistics function in Evidentiary and Investigative Contexts

Recently, forensic linguistics has been an arena of significance in many fields of study especially in judicial systems, legal and forensic matters, investigation, and open-source intelligence across the globe. The term typically refers to legal and professional analysis of recorded or written language by experts (forensic linguists) to provide expert and correct interpretation. It is particularly used in legal matters especially in the court and criminal justice systems. In the court system, forensic linguistics is heavily applied to examine language evidence – either recorded in voice or handwritten in civil matters or crimes. The analysis or examination is carried out for two major reasons. First, the analysis is utilized when relevant investigations are carried out with a focus to help in identifying witnesses or suspects in specific cases or scenes, or the determination of the significance of writing or utterance to a case. Secondly, forensic linguistics plays a pivotal role when written or spoken language samples are presented to a court as evidence. In such contexts, forensic linguists provide expert testimonies of correct interpretation of the samples. As such, language analysis is significant in any judicial matters and systems provided the questionable language constitutes crimes. In most cases, crimes such as threats, hate speech, bribery, hate literature, coercion among others necessitate the use of a linguist expert for correct and most importantly professional interpretation. Evidently, the concept of forensic linguistics is ascribed to provide the truth from recorded speeches or voices and written languages in the face of a crime or relevant legal investigation matters. This paper will posit on the different ways and methods that forensic linguistics is applied to investigate and provide professional interpretation of recorded and written languages in evidentiary and investigative contexts.

Due Process & the Theater of Racial Degradation: The Evolving Notion of Pretrial Punishment in the Criminal Courts

Most theorists assume that the criminal courts are neutral arbiters of justice, protected by the Constitution, the rule of law, and court records. This essay challenges those assumptions and examines the courts as a place of punitive excess and the normalization of racial abuse and punishment. The essay explains the historic origins of these trends and examines how the categories of “hardened” and “marginal” defendants began to assume racialized meanings with the emergence of mass incarceration. This transformed the criminal courts into a type of public theater for racial degradation. These public performances or “racial degradation ceremonies” occur within the discretionary practices and cultural norms of mostly White courtroom professionals as they efficiently manage the disposition of cases in the everyday practice of law. I link these historical findings to a recent study of the largest unified criminal court system in the United States–Cook County, Chicago–and discuss court watching programs as an intervention for accountability and oversight of our courts and its legal professionals.

An Overview of the Civil Procedure and Court System of Netherlands

When it comes to Dutch law, the initiation of civil litigation, there are just a few cases in the Netherlands. This is due to the harmonized Dutch culture. Therefore, compared to other European countries, the number of lawyers and judges per capita in the Netherlands is small. In this scientific paper, we will make an overview of the civil judicial organization, the types of civil proceedings, the obligation to represent the civil cases in the court through a lawyer, legal aid and also in more detail we will focus on the main stages of the civil trial as well as the conditions that must be met before initiating civil proceedings. We will analyze in detail the fact that in the Dutch Law, the defendant may deny the right to judicial reconciliation with the plaintiff, before initiating the proceedings and that it is also preferable in Dutch Law, that the opposing party is summoned to fulfill its obligations within a certain period. If without respecting this method, the court procedure is initiated, the court costs may be attributed to the initiator of the procedure, i.e the plaintiff. Except for proceedings before judges from subordinate regions in Dutch law, the general rule is that the proceedings must be presided over by the plaintiff's attorney (procurator litis) and by a lawyer selected from the list of attorneys registered with the Association. In this scientific paper, we will also pay special attention to the temporary legal protection and special procedures and we will also focus on the judgments and legal remedies in Dutch law.

One Boat, Two Captains: Implications of the 2020 Samoan Land and Titles Court Reforms for Customary Law and Human Rights

Samoa's 2020 Land and Titles Court reforms, which contributed to the Human Rights Protection Party losing support at the April 2021 elections after almost 40 years of government, have recentred attention on the tensions of legal pluralism in the South Pacific. Although Samoa maintains a system of English common law, 81 per cent of Samoan land falls under the traditional matai titles system, giving a central role to the customary Land and Titles Court (LTC). In December 2020, the Samoan parliament passed three Acts – the Constitution Amendment Act 2020, the Land and Titles Act 2020 and the Judicature Act 2020 – establishing the LTC in a parallel court hierarchy with equivalent status to the Samoan Supreme Court and Court of Appeal. This proposal has prompted debate between those favouring incorporation and promotion of Samoan custom over Western legal norms, and others who argue the amendments undermine human rights protections and the rule of law. This article evaluates the effects of these changes on the role and administration of custom in Samoa, contextualising them within broader socio-legal debates around customary legal systems. It first analyses the effect of the three Acts with regard to the bifurcation of the court system, procedural reforms in the LTC hierarchy and the introduction of a judicial guidance clause. This leads into a critical evaluation of these changes, highlighting impacts upon judicial coherence; constitutional human rights; consistency between customary and common law procedures; and resourcing constraints. The article concludes by providing broad options for future reform. It does not focus on issues which have received attention elsewhere, such as the amendments' potential impacts on judicial independence.

"if other arrangements can reasonably be made": the interior architecture of Children's Courts in New Zealand in the 1930s

In 1925, the Child Welfare Act was passed. The Act introduced the idea of the Children's Court as a space "separate from the premises in which another Court usually exercises jurisdiction" (s28). In 1927, an amendment to the Act provided further elaboration, clarifying that: "persons attending any sittings of a Children's Court shall not be brought into contact with persons in attendance at any other Court." To achieve this the amendment stipulated that: "for this purpose the sittings of the Children's Court shall not, except in cases where no other suitable room is available, be held in any room in which any other Court ordinarily exercises jurisdiction; nor shall a sitting of the Children's Court, if held in the same premises as any other Court, be held at a time when such other Court is sitting, if other arrangements can reasonably be made" (s18(1)). This paper investigates the locations, and interior architectures of Children's Courts in New Zealand in the 1930s. It aims to establish whether or not the interior architecture of Children's Courts, with their legislated requirement to be physically distinct from the rest of the court system, was also distinct, and in what ways children were specifically accommodated for in this interior architecture.

Towards Reducing the Pendency of Cases at Court: Automated Case Analysis of Supreme Court Judgments in India

The Indian court system generates huge amounts of data relating to administration, pleadings, litigant behaviour, and court decisions on a regular basis. But the existing Judiciary is incapable of managing these vast troves of data efficiently that causes delays and pendency of a large volume of cases in the courts. Some of these time-consuming tasks involve case briefing, examining the legal issues, facts, legal principles, observations, and other significant aspects submitted by the contending parties in the court. In other words, computational methods to understand the underlying structure of a case document will directly aid the lawyers to perform these tasks efficiently and improve the overall efficiency of the Justice delivery system. Application of Computational techniques (such as Natural Language Processing) can help to gather and sift through these vast troves of information, identify patterns, extract the document structure, draft documents and make the information available online. Traditionally lawyers are trained to examine cases using the Case Law Analysis approach for case briefing. In this article, the authors aim to establish the importance and relevance of the automated case analysis problem in the legal domain. They introduce a novel case analysis structure for the supreme court judgment documents and define twelve different case law labels that are used by legal professionals to identify the structure. Finally the authors propose a method for automated case analysis, which will directly aid the lawyers to prepare speedy and efficient case briefs and drastically reduce the time taken by them in litigation.

The Application of Artificial Intelligence Technology in the US Civil Court System

Introduction: in the era of the active introduction of digital technologies, more and more processes are being automated and smart machines are taking over the work of people. Even at the end of the 20th century, automatic spell-checking and search engines were perceived by many as “highly intelligent” information technologies. Currently, such processes have become completely trivial for most people and have given way to more advanced technologies. The intelligent face recognition systems installed in public places and airports allow you to verify a person’s identity, as well as assist in the capture of criminals. The smart assistants in mobile devices, for example, Google Maps, provide additional information about the destination (working hours, the name of the organization). However, there is more and more debate about the introduction of artificial intelligence technologies in the judicial process. Many experts in the field of information and communication technologies, as well as practicing lawyers, argue that thanks to the accumulated experience and judicial practice, it is possible to predict and make court decisions based on certain algorithms for certain categories of cases. This practice already exists in the system of alternative settlement of civil disputes. The first such decision was made by a robot mediator back in 2019 in the High Court of England and Wales. To resolve the dispute, the Smartsettle ONE system developed by the Canadian company iCan Systems was used. The use of artificial intelligence technology allowed resolving the dispute between the parties and coming to an agreement in less than an hour. The legislator approaches the issues of the introduction of artificial intelligence technology in the system of state courts more carefully. However, court cases do not always require a comprehensive individual approach to decision-making and many cases can be processed automatically, at least, partially. In this regard, it seems appropriate to explore in the paper the main opportunities and risks of using artificial intelligence through the example of the civil justice system of the United States of America. The purpose of the study is achieved by answering several questions: how can artificial intelligence be useful for courts? What mechanisms of the justice system need to be improved for the effective operation of artificial intelligence systems? What forms of artificial intelligence exist in the US civil court system? How can courts and judges work with artificial intelligence under the standards of a fair procedure for considering civil disputes? The methodology is based on a theoretical approach to the study of the most commonly used artificial intelligence technologies in the US civil justice system, as well as a number of national laws and other regulations. Based on the analysis of the theoretical data obtained, in the paper, the author analyzes the current trends and mechanisms for resolving civil disputes using artificial intelligence systems and also highlights some related problems. The results of the research can be used in determining the key goals and objectives of a procedural nature, improving the functioning of judicial and non-judicial organizations, law enforcement, research activities, as well as in teaching activities, in particular, during lectures and seminars on courses of private international law and civil procedure. Conclusions: increasing the level of awareness of participants in civil law disputes about current trends and tools for the administration of justice contributes to the development of the institution of civil proceedings, as well as contributes to increasing transparency and increasing the degree of trust of citizens in the judicial system as a whole.

Pre-Trial in the Criminal Justice System in Military Criminal Judges in Indonesia

Law enforcement in the Military Court System in the settlement of criminal cases committed by TNI soldiers is seen as not yet fully guaranteeing legal protection for the rights of suspects, this is due to the absence of a control agency that oversees the actions of law enforcement officers in carrying out their duties and authorities as is the case in the system. General Court. This condition should not drag on indefinitely, because it will affect the law enforcement process and harm the suspect to fight for his rights to obtain justice which results in human rights violations (TNI soldiers). The purpose of the establishment of the Pretrial Institution is as stated in the Elucidation of Article 80 of the Criminal Procedure Code which states that this article intends to uphold law, justice, and truth through horizontal supervision. Settlement of criminal cases in Indonesia in addition to the Code of Criminal Procedure Code (KUHAP) which applies to civil society, we also recognize the existence of the Military Criminal Procedure Code which is regulated in Law Number 31 of 1997 concerning Military Courts, namely the law that regulates the procedure for resolving criminal cases. a criminal case committed by a TNI soldier. The Law on Military Courts includes the provisions of the litigation process (Military Criminal Procedure Law) starting from the investigation stage, submission of cases, the examination process at trial to the implementation of decisions. 31 of 1997 does not regulate pretrial. In several cases in the Military Court where a suspect was detained without a warrant for detention or was late in obtaining a warrant for detention, therefore such actions may conflict with the principles applicable in the provisions of criminal law so that they do not respect the position of the suspect as a creature created by God, even the act can lead to human rights violators. Therefore, in the military justice system in Indonesia, pretrial institutions are needed as a form of horizontal external supervision.

Criminological Policy of the Russian Federation: the Concept of Judicial Reform and Justice of the Peace

The article presents a legal approach to the problem of the influence of the judicial system segment of Russian criminological policy on the effectiveness of the general prevention of deviant behavior. Within this framework, the authors compare the assumptions of the program documents that described the criminological parameters of justice of the peace during its introduction in the contemporary judicial system, and the results achieved by this introduction. By analyzing the Decree of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR «On the Concept of Judicial Reform in the RSFSR», the authors demonstrate that this document was aimed at legitimizing confederative relationships in the Russian Federation with the design of the judicial system of «cooperative federalism» type. The justice of the peace, whose status and jurisdiction are only schematically outlined in the Concept of Judicial Reform, was to play a decorative role in the political and ideological support of the achievement of a far more ambitious goal. The transformation of Russia into a state of «cooperative federalism» with extreme asymmetry of its subjects would have meant the removal of the opportunity for the justices of the peace to perform the criminological function of courts. The introduction of justices of the peace simultaneously with the adoption of their own codes of material and procedural law in the republics of the RSFSR predetermined the creation of legal systems independent of the federal center in each Russian subject and the blocking of the criminological function of the courts. At the same time, a retrospect reference to the legal tradition of the Russian Empire formed an erroneous understanding of Russian justice of the peace as a unified (since 1864) judicial system, and lead to the development of abstract projects that hindered the implementation of the crime prevention potential of justice of the peace. The result of the criminological policy of the Russian Federation in 1991–1996 was the structuring of the court system of the Russian Federation which was different from the model presented in the Concept of Judicial Reform. The conducted research showed that justice of the peace in Russia duly influences crime prevention.