S2E5: Legal German
How is legal German different from everyday German? What is the difference between ‘Absicht’ and ‘Vorsatz’? And how does language travel through the legal system in Austria?
In this episode I talk to Daniel Green, university assistant and president of the Austrian Association for Legal Linguistics. We talk about what words might have different meanings in a legal context, where the word Fräulein is still in use, and what specific word keeps appearing in suspect statements, even though it's rarely ever actually uttered by the suspect.
Outro music: One Single Lie by Euphoniques
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About this episode's guest
Daniel Green is a university assistant at the Vienna University of Economics and Business, and president of the Austrian Association for Legal Linguistics. His research interests include in data protection law, statutory interpretation, legislative drafting, and the role of linguistic indeterminacy in Austrian criminal proceedings.
Email: daniel.green@wu.ac.at
Website: rechtslinguistik.com
Photo © Robert Wählt
Publication
Book:
Die Datenschutzerklärung: Compliance in klarer und einfacher Sprache
With Stefan Knotzer
LexisNexis, 2020
Die Datenschutzerklärung: Compliance in klarer und einfacher Sprache combines a compact presentation of the applicable data protection law with a special focus on information obligations with a usage-based legal linguistic analysis of 350 privacy statements of companies operating in Austria.
The work deals comprehensively with the content of the information obligations under data protection law and addresses, among other things, the question of how the indeterminate requirements of "comprehensibility" and "clear and simple language" can be fulfilled in the best possible way.
Links and information
- Website of the Austrian Association for Legal Linguistics: https://oegrl.com
- AALL Instagram page: @oegrl
- Daniel Green ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Daniel-Green-44
This episode was first released on 15.03.2022.
YOTE theme music by Vincent Tone (PremiumBeat.com)