Final Report Summary - LLECJ (Law and Language at the ECJ)
The LLECJ project has pursued ambitious research questions relating to elaborating a new understanding of EU law. By examining the process behind the production of the multilingual jurisprudence of the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) & analysing the relationship between law, language & translation in that jurisprudence, using methodological tools borrowed from fields outside of law, the project has certainly achieved its goal of introducing a new facet to the thinking on the development of the EU legal order.
The project was divided into three inter-connected subprojects: the first investigated the nature & limitations of a multilingual legal order by analysing the process behind the production of the ECJ’s jurisprudence; the second analysed the development of a de facto precedent in ECJ judgments; & the third explored the significance of language for the role of the Advocate General (AG) at the ECJ.
Key findings of the project include:
• ECJ case law is multi-layered & multi-authored. The linguistically hybrid community of the ECJ functions primarily through language interplays, negotiations & exchanges, & the processes within that court necessarily affect its output i.e. its case law.
• EU law functions by way of a linguistic cultural compromise, comprising two elements:
that by which ECJ case law is created
that by which that law is filtered out to the wider EU through translation
• Language, multilingualism & translation affect the development of de facto precedent in ECJ case law: the theory of linguistic precedent.
• AG’s opinions can be considered multi-authored & multi-layered documents, for which the relevant AG takes ultimate responsibility. Similar to ECJ judgments, certain opinions comprise ‘linguistic layers’ of hidden translation, highlighting the impact that the ECJ’s internal institutional language has beyond its case law.
• Multilingualism is not an accidental property of EU law, but is in fact a force that has an impact on the very nature of that law.
To date 15 research publications have arisen from the LLECJ project, with a further 8 in-progress. Findings have been disseminated at a total of 48 research conferences & organisations worldwide.
The LLECJ project brought forward new research questions, new methods & new empirical material to the study of EU law, & particularly the ECJ. Research carried out in the project has been highly original in law methodologically, theoretically & doctrinally, comprising an unusual combination of fundamental & applied research in that discipline. The project has developed new methodologies for researching EU law & other fields. In addition, new theories that contribute to our understanding of EU law & the expansion of the field of law & language more generally have been elaborated, as well as theories that go beyond both EU law & law & language research (including a new theoretical framework for the theory of superdiversity, & a new corpus-based model for studying discourse relations of texts). The project has also generated big data resources, which are available for further research.
One key element of the LLECJ project was its interdisciplinary nature. It extends a challenge to EU law scholarship to draw on other disciplines in order to fully understand the development of a rule of law in the EU. Furthermore it challenges disciplines outside of EU law to embrace interdisciplinarity in order to produce impactful research which can genuinely speak across fields.
Overall, the LLECJ project has consisted of true ‘frontier research’, & has led to the development of new methodologies, theories & findings that have gone beyond the state of the art. The project’s research findings have implications not only for understanding EU law at a meta-level, but also for the practical application of EU law across member states.
More information about the LLECJ project, including its outputs, can be found on the website: www.llecj.karenmcauliffe.com
The project was divided into three inter-connected subprojects: the first investigated the nature & limitations of a multilingual legal order by analysing the process behind the production of the ECJ’s jurisprudence; the second analysed the development of a de facto precedent in ECJ judgments; & the third explored the significance of language for the role of the Advocate General (AG) at the ECJ.
Key findings of the project include:
• ECJ case law is multi-layered & multi-authored. The linguistically hybrid community of the ECJ functions primarily through language interplays, negotiations & exchanges, & the processes within that court necessarily affect its output i.e. its case law.
• EU law functions by way of a linguistic cultural compromise, comprising two elements:
that by which ECJ case law is created
that by which that law is filtered out to the wider EU through translation
• Language, multilingualism & translation affect the development of de facto precedent in ECJ case law: the theory of linguistic precedent.
• AG’s opinions can be considered multi-authored & multi-layered documents, for which the relevant AG takes ultimate responsibility. Similar to ECJ judgments, certain opinions comprise ‘linguistic layers’ of hidden translation, highlighting the impact that the ECJ’s internal institutional language has beyond its case law.
• Multilingualism is not an accidental property of EU law, but is in fact a force that has an impact on the very nature of that law.
To date 15 research publications have arisen from the LLECJ project, with a further 8 in-progress. Findings have been disseminated at a total of 48 research conferences & organisations worldwide.
The LLECJ project brought forward new research questions, new methods & new empirical material to the study of EU law, & particularly the ECJ. Research carried out in the project has been highly original in law methodologically, theoretically & doctrinally, comprising an unusual combination of fundamental & applied research in that discipline. The project has developed new methodologies for researching EU law & other fields. In addition, new theories that contribute to our understanding of EU law & the expansion of the field of law & language more generally have been elaborated, as well as theories that go beyond both EU law & law & language research (including a new theoretical framework for the theory of superdiversity, & a new corpus-based model for studying discourse relations of texts). The project has also generated big data resources, which are available for further research.
One key element of the LLECJ project was its interdisciplinary nature. It extends a challenge to EU law scholarship to draw on other disciplines in order to fully understand the development of a rule of law in the EU. Furthermore it challenges disciplines outside of EU law to embrace interdisciplinarity in order to produce impactful research which can genuinely speak across fields.
Overall, the LLECJ project has consisted of true ‘frontier research’, & has led to the development of new methodologies, theories & findings that have gone beyond the state of the art. The project’s research findings have implications not only for understanding EU law at a meta-level, but also for the practical application of EU law across member states.
More information about the LLECJ project, including its outputs, can be found on the website: www.llecj.karenmcauliffe.com