Managing Language Barriers by the Means of Administrative Law: Linguistic Dimension of the Ukrainian Crisis in the Czech Republic
Abstract
Every encounter of two different cultures almost inevitably brings along an issue of translation and interpretation. When it comes to bureaucratic procedures, the Czech law requires that certain inter-linguistic actions be executed with the assistance of socalled court translators and court interpreters, i.e. highly skilled professionals holding a special license issued by the Ministry of Justice.
While the regulatory regime of certified translation and interpretation had been designed as to satisfy the ordinary day-to-day needs of the judicial system, an unexpected and acute crisis concerning thousands of foreign nationals having not one, but two or more native languages, seemed to have put the relatively rigid system to the trial. Our presentation will address the problematic regulatory issues arising from this situation and propose both practical and theoretical or conceptual solutions to the existing problems.