The Stages of Criminal and Civil Procedures from the Viewpoint of Court Interpreters

Abstract

Act CXXX of 2016 on the Code of Civil Procedure, effective from January 1, 2018, and Act XC of 2017 on the Code of Criminal Procedure, effective from July 1, 2018, introduced fundamental changes affecting, among others, court interpreters. However, a detailed analysis of these changes from the perspective of court interpreters is still lacking in the literature. While this study cannot and does not aim to provide a comprehensive overview of all Hungarian legislation governing the rights and obligations of court interpreters, it seeks to clarify the relevant pro- visions of the Civil Procedure Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure, the two most important procedural acts pertaining to court interpreters, particularly to students in interpreter training and novice court interpreters. After reviewing the constitutional foundations of civil and criminal procedures, the right to use one’s own language in such procedures, and the relevant laws for court interpreters the study overviews the structure and stages of civil and criminal procedures.

To guide readers through the maze of criminal and civil procedures in Hungary, the study employs the methods of easification and simplification, as explained by Bhatia (1997). Easification is a process of making a specialized text more accessible to a specialist audience without sacrificing generic integrity (1997: 209). This study utilizes a key easification technique: clarifying cognitive structure by employing textual-mapping devices (1997: 209). Simplification, as opposed to easification, is intended for lay audiences, aiming to simplify complex legal syntax and to reduce information overload in legislative sentences (1997: 212). By combining these two approaches, this study aims to be a valuable resource for both court interpreting professionals and those outside the field.