Intercultural Awareness in Legal language

CALL FOR PAPERS
10th International Roundtable for the Semiotics of Law
‘Intercultural Awareness in Legal Language’

Conference Venue: Public Law Department – School of Law of
Fluminense Federal University – UFF (Niterói/Rio de Janeiro – Brazil)
Dates: 11-13 November 2011
Hosted by Evandro Carvalho (Brazil)

The 2011 roundtable will focus on the contribution of legal semiotics to discuss the different ways of thinking the "legal" in a world's cultural diversity.
Aware of the III World Forum of the Alliance of Civilizations, held in Brazil in May 2010, that had the intention to rethink how to deal with tensions between cultures and promote trust and understanding between heterogeneous communities, the 10th Roundtable intend to put together scholars of legal semiotics to discuss the influences of cultural and linguistic diversity on the construction of meaning in national law and international law.

It is hoped that the papers will reflect the interdisciplinary nature of legal semiotics research as well as the challenges of working in the field. In this context, proposals from a wide variety of semiotic perspectives are invited. These might include but are not limited to papers on:
• The contribution of legal semiotics across cultures
• The problem of multilingualism
• Semiotics and comparative law
• Legal semiotics and the processes of normative integration
• Semiotics of international relations
• Semiotics and competition of languages in international relations
• Language, power and diplomacy
• Translating legal concepts across cultures: the case of contract terminology or case of land law terminology.
• The misuse of language in the judicial process, in legal adjudication
• The use of metaphors in legal language
Young researchers working in related areas are particularly encouraged to participate. In the interest of a cohesive round table, prospective participants are requested to adhere to the theme as outlined in the call for papers.

Proposals in either English, Spanish, French or Portuguese (max 300 words) should be sent only by e-mail by 15 May 2011 to irsl2011@gmail.com, evandro.carvalho@gmail.com and to Anne Wagner (valwagnerfr@yahoo.com).
Selected papers will be published in a special annual issue in English and/or French of the International Journal for the Semiotics of Law (http://www.springer.com/). The length of the paper should not normally exceed 7000 words, including references, footnotes, and appendices, if any. Please follow the style sheet for the International Journal for the Semiotics of Law (Visit the website at http://www.springer.com/law/journal/11196)