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Access to justice through linguistic and cultural barriers in Ireland’s Child Care Courts

Murphy, Réidín (2022) Access to justice through linguistic and cultural barriers in Ireland’s Child Care Courts. PhD thesis, Dublin City University.

Abstract
Interpreting quality is at risk in Ireland due to lack of statutory regulation of the industry. There has been very little commentary on court interpreting in the Family Law System which includes Child Care Law. Research undertaken to date since bona fide Researchers gained access to the Child Care Courts has revealed that minority families are over-represented in the Child Care system. The current research examines access to justice through cross-cultural interactions and linguistic barriers faced by parties with Limited English Proficiency (LEP) in Child Care legal proceedings. Ethnographic methods consisting of participant observation, case studies and interviews with professional actors in the Child Care legal field are employed and Bourdieu’s social theory is utilised as a theoretical underpinning for the data analysis. The key research questions of the impact of interpreting and cross-cultural communication on litigant’s ability to access justice are explored as separate and related themes brought together through a triangulated methodological approach. The primary research findings are a lack of professionalisation and unclear delineation across interpreter and advocacy roles in the District Court. The research identifies and outlines a range of problems in relation to the provision of interpreting and cultural information in Child Care cases. The research finds that the way in which cases involving LEP parties needing support from an interpreter are handled by the Sitting Judge in Child Care proceedings is vital for ensuring there is access to justice and that standards of fairness prevail. The standard of interpreting is not evaluated, however findings are made around indicators of the current standards through an evaluation of court actors’ perceptions of the impact of interpreting on outcomes from the legal process. Linguistic barriers in a broad sense emerge as a strong theme and the research recommends ways in which interpreting quality and cultural competency can be enhanced to ensure that the voices of parents and children are heard in cross-cultural cases in the District Child Care Courts.
Metadata
Item Type:Thesis (PhD)
Date of Award:November 2022
Refereed:No
Supervisor(s):Phelan, Mary
Uncontrolled Keywords:Child care law; Child care proceedings; interpreting; advocacy
Subjects:Humanities > Translating and interpreting
DCU Faculties and Centres:DCU Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Humanities and Social Science > School of Applied Language and Intercultural Studies
Research Initiatives and Centres > Centre for Translation and Textual Studies (CTTS)
Funders:School of Applied Language and Intercultural Studies
ID Code:27753
Deposited On:11 Nov 2022 15:39 by Mary Phelan . Last Modified 11 Nov 2022 15:39
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