Case communication at the European Court of Human Rights: Genre-based and translation perspectives

This study contributes to research on the discursive practices at the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), as descriptions of ECtHR language and translation policies are scant. The study combines genre-based and translation perspectives to outline the system of procedural genres, with a specific focus on a hitherto unresearched and semi-“occluded” (Swales 1996) genre of case communication. This genre takes on an important role in the procedural flow of documents as it marks the case acceptance by the Court, orients the following written procedure and represents the first instance of institutional legal translation in cases when the initial application is lodged in a language other than English or French, the ECtHR official languages. The findings identify two alternative generic templates and hypothesize that the template choice could derive from a potential reliance on the so-called situated cognition and could correlate with a different set of translational competences required, when transposing knowledge from the initial applications. The study supplements previous research on institutional legal translation at the ECtHR, casting light on its “hidden” dimension, as well as uncovering its imaginative and creative side through an overview of case communications dealing with Article 10 provisions – freedom of expression – that exact the highest level of translational expertise on the lawyers dealing with these texts as they frequently feature creative, profane and even taboo language.