ABSTRACT
Interactions in legal contexts, such as the legislature, police interview, or courtroom, typically involve participants from diverse cultural backgrounds. Each of these participants comes to the encounter imbued with their own assumptions about norms of communication, developed through their historical upbringing and grounded in their individual personal, professional, and other sociocultural affiliations. Participants in legal interactions must accommodate this cultural diversity in order to communicate effectively: a failure to do so can result in serious consequences for the individuals concerned. Research in legal discourse and intercultural communication in legal contexts has focused on three main arenas of intercultural contact: (1) interactions between legal professionals and lay people; (2) interactions between dominant culture and minority culture group members; (3) interactions in multilingual and multicultural legal contexts. The aim of this chapter is to provide an overview and critical review of this research. In spite of the potential for intercultural contact, communication in legal contexts is char-
acterized by its rigid adherence to the norms and conventions of legal discourse. However, many people are unfamiliar with these norms and conventions, and as a result, legal encounters can be a bewildering experience. This lack of familiarity with legal cultural norms can be attributed to a number of factors, which often combine with one another, depending on individual cultural background. In the first place, legal cultural norms conform to the norms of the legal professional domain, with its own specialist language, rituals, and practices, all informed by a particular legal worldview. Non-specialists who lack an appreciation of these legal ways may find communication in legal contexts to be challenging. Second, legal cultural norms conform to the norms of the dominant culture in society. Members of minority groups who are unfamiliar with this dominant culture may therefore experience additional challenges to communication in these contexts. Finally, legal cultural norms can vary from place to place, and from legal system to legal system. As a result, even individuals who are experienced in one legal culture may experience challenges when confronted with a foreign legal culture. With the globalization of trade and the dismantling of national borders that has come with it, it is becoming increasingly important for members of the legal profession to learn to operate in multilingual and multicultural legal contexts.
