The Discourse of the European Court of Human Rights: the Role of Case Communications in the Introduction of System-bound Elements

This study overviews how national terms are added to the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights. Contributing to previous literature on the ECtHR discourse which focussed on judgments, the study proposes a system of genres approach (Bazerman, 1994), analysing how system-bound elements (SBEs), i.e. those terms and phrases that need to maintain their national embedding, move across multiple procedural genres of the ECtHR (application, case communication, written pleadings, decision and judgment) in four cases against Ukraine, Latvia, Italy and Russia. Against the theoretical-methodological framework of discourse analysis, legal terminology and Legal Translation Studies, the analysis emphasises a critical role of case communications. Case communications recontextualise national elements in a supranational context, translate SBEs, and transform lay representation of applicants into legal discourse. The findings demonstrate how factual reconstruction and SBEs migrate verbatim from case communications into judgments, despite different variants exist in other documents. The study identified some country-specific differences in the rendition of SBEs concerning the use of alphabet and the national caseload. SBEs using Cyrillic tend to omit Cyrillic in judgments. SBEs from high-caseload countries seem to have consolidated versions, both translated (from Ukrainian and Russian) and rendered using translation couplets with loanwords (Italy). SBEs from low-caseload countries (Latvia) are subject to noticeable variation. The study foregrounds the importance of the system of genres approach and problematises decision-making practices concerning SBEs at the supranational level.