Translating Evidence And Interpreting Testimony At A War Crimes Tribunal: Working In A Tug-of-war (palgrave Studies In Languages At War)

How Can Defendants Be Tried If They Cannot Understand The Charges Being Raised Against Them? Can A Witness Testify If The Judges And Attorneys Cannot Understand What The Witness Is Saying? Can A Judge Decide Whether To Convict Or Acquit If She Or He Cannot Read The Documentary Evidence? The Very Viability Of International Criminal Prosecution And Adjudication Hinges On The Massive Amounts Of Translation And Interpreting That Are Required In Order To Run These Lengthy, Complex Trials, And The Procedures For Handling The Demands Facing Language Services. This Book Explores The Dynamic Courtroom Interactions In The International Criminal Tribunal For The Former Yugoslavia In Which Witnesses Testify--through An Interpreter--about Translations, Attorneys Argue--through An Interpreter--about Translations And The Interpreting, And Judges Adjudicate On The Interpreted Testimony And Translated Evidence-- The Practitioners -- The Practice -- Practicalities -- The Witnesses -- The Office Of The Prosecutor -- The Defence -- Chambers And The Icty Legacy. Ellen Elias-bursać. Includes Bibliographical References (pages 286-296) And Index. Translating Evidence and Interpreting Testimony at a War Crimes Tribunal: Working in a Tug-of-War 4 Contents 8 List of Figures and Tables 12 Preface 13 Acknowledgements 16 List of Abbreviations 18 “The End and the Beginning”, Wisława Szymborska, translated by Joanna Trzeciak 20 Introduction 22 I.1 The accused; witnesses; attorneys; judges; the interpreters and translators 22 I.2 Terminology 24 I.3 The history 25 I.4 Trials and transcripts 27 I.5 Scholarship 29 I.6 Structure 32 Part I: The Translators and Interpreters 36 1 The Practitioners 38 1.1 Field interpreters and language assistants 39 1.2 From ‘fig leaf’ to war crimes court 44 1.3 The chronology 46 1.4 The workplace 50 1.5 Why work at the ICTY? 51 1.6 The Language Services S urvey 53 1.6.1 The most rewarding experience 56 1.6.2 The most challenging experience 61 1.6.3 Responding to criticism of the tribunal 65 1.6.4 Trauma 67 1.7 Bias 74 2 The Practice 79 2.1 The Conference and Language Services Section 80 2.2 Working in French 81 2.3 The languages of the accused and the witnesses 86 2.3.1 B/C/S: Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian 88 2.3.2 Albanian 93 2.3.3 Macedonian 93 2.4 Interpreting 94 2.4.1 Courtesy 96 2.4.2 Praise for interpreters 98 2.4.3 Criticism 99 2.4.4 Speaking up 105 2.4.5 For the record 109 2.4.6 ‘Verbatim’ 110 2.4.7 Interpreting lacunae 113 2.5 ICTY staff on the stand 114 2.6 Between interpreting and translating 119 2.6.1 Terms for the practitioners 119 2.6.2 Professional mobility 120 2.7 Translation 121 2.7.1 Pre-trial translation 121 2.7.2 Document-heavy trials 126 2.7.3 The bottleneck 128 2.7.4 Duplicate translations 129 2.7.5 The Document and Video Unit 130 2.7.6 The variety of documents for translation 132 2.7.7 Standards for translation accuracy 135 2.7.8 Revision 136 2.7.9 Challenges to authenticity 139 3 Practicalities 141 3.1 The translating institution 142 3.2 Slow-down requests 142 3.2.1 Neutral requests 145 3.2.2 Warnings 145 3.2.3 Time pressure 147 3.2.4 Commending the interpreters 148 3.2.5 Requests to slow down emotional testimony 148 3.2.6 Courtroom decorum 150 3.2.7 Levity 150 3.3 Error correction 151 3.3.1 Verification memoranda 153 3.3.2 Correction routines 157 3.3.3 Misunderstandings 158 3.3.4 Clarification 159 3.4 Annotating translations 161 3.5 Negotiating meaning, ethnic slurs 164 3.5.1 Balija 166 3.5.2 Šiptar 170 Part II: The Courtroom 184 4 The Witnesses 186 4.1 The challenges of witnessing 187 4.2 The initial interview 189 4.3 Criticism of the witness-statement procedure 190 4.4 Preparation for trial 192 4.5 Testimony 193 4.5.1 Routine discussion of the witness statement 193 4.5.2 Minor disputes 194 4.5.3 Claims of manipulation 195 4.6 Negotiating meaning, the witnesses 197 4.7 Witnesses; translators; interpreters 199 4.8 Witness satisfaction as a measure of tribunal success 200 5 The Office of the Prosecutor 202 5.1 Negotiating meaning, the prosecution 202 5.2 Asanacija 203 5.2.1 Asanacija in Slobodan Milošević 207 5.2.2 Asanacija in Krstić 208 5.2.3 Asanacija in Popović et al. 210 5.3 Unmasking a massacre 213 5.4 Denial 214 6 The Defence 215 6.1 Equality of arms 216 6.2 Monitoring quality 218 6.3 Ownership of language 220 6.4 Negotiating meaning, the defence 224 6.4.1 Komandant, komandir 226 6.4.2 Rukovodjenje 229 6.4.3 Negotiating colours 235 6.4.4 Stacionar 238 6.5 Other defence matters 243 6.5.1 Procedural matters and the self-represented accused 243 6.5.2 Interpreters and confidentiality 250 6.5.3 The interpreter trope 255 7 Chambers and the ICTY Legacy 262 7.1 The judges 262 7.2 The judgements 264 7.2.1 Trial judgements 266 7.2.2 Appeals judgements 267 8 Conclusion 270 8.1 The institution 271 8.2 The tug-of-war beyond the tribunal 273 8.3 Shortcomings 275 8.4 Success 277 Appendix 1: ICTY and CLSS 279 Appendix 2: Trial Summaries 280 Appendix 3: Language Services Survey 283 Appendix 4: Data Summary 291 Appendix 5: Survey Data Tables 294 Notes 297 Introduction 297 1 The Practitioners 297 2 The Practice 299 3 Practicalities 302 4 The Witnesses 304 5 The Office of the Prosecutor 304 6 The Defence 305 8 Conclusion 306 Bibliography 307 Index 318 This book analyses the ways interpreting and translating shape the work of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, and war crimes tribunals more generally. How can defendants be tried if they cannot understand the charges being raised against them? Can a witness testify if the judges and attorneys cannot understand what the witness is saying? Can a judge decide whether to convict or acquit if she or he cannot read the documentary evidence? The very viability of international criminal prosecution and adjudication hinges on the massive amounts of translation and interpreting that are required in order to run these lengthy, complex trials, and the procedures for handling the demands facing language services. This book explores the dynamic courtroom interactions in the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in which witnesses testify-through an interpreter-about translations, attorneys argue-through an interpreter-about translations and the interpreting, and judges adjudicate on the interpreted testimony and translated evidence "How can defendants be tried if they cannot understand the charges being raised against them? Can a witness testify if the judges and attorneys cannot understand what the witness is saying? Can a judge decide whether to convict or acquit if she or he cannot read the documentary evidence? The very viability of international criminal prosecution and adjudication hinges on the massive amounts of translation and interpreting that are required in order to run these lengthy, complex trials, and the procedures for handling the demands facing language services. This book explores the dynamic courtroom interactions in the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in which witnesses testify--through an interpreter--about translations, attorneys argue--through an interpreter--about translations and the interpreting, and judges adjudicate on the interpreted testimony and translated evidence"-- Provided by publisher How can defendants be tried if they cannot understand the charges being raised against them? Can a witness testify if the judges and attorneys cannot understand what the witness is saying? Can a judge decide whether to convict or acquit if she or he cannot read the documentary evidence? The very viability of international criminal prosecution and adjudication hinges on the massive amounts of translation and interpreting that are required in order to run these lengthy, complex trials, and the procedures for handling the demands facing language services. This book explores the dynamic courtroom interactions in the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in which witnesses testify through an interpreter about translations, attorneys argue through an interpreter about translations and the interpreting, and judges adjudicate on the interpreted testimony and translated evidence.