Project description

Summary

Intercepting wire, oral, or electronic communication is an important element of criminal investigations. The goal is to transform communication intercepts into evidence of probable cause. This measure of secret surveillance is technically and legally possible, but expensive, and of course, only of use if the content of the conversations can be understood, that is, made available by interpreters.

Hence, criminal justice is completely dependent on good performances of interpreters. Interpreters lay the very foundation for subsequent interrogations and decisions by the Public Prosecutor to take further coercive measures or not.

According to the Swiss Criminal Procedure Code, jurisprudence and legal doctrine have so far neglected the significant and powerful role of these interpreters, whose activities are very different from those of courtroom or police interrogation interpreters. Scientific research has also mostly focused on courtroom interpreting, presumably because its context makes it more accessible.

However, interpreters involved in interception face specific challenges and must have different qualities than courtroom interpreters, including special linguistic skills such as dialect knowledge, voice recognition skills, criminal investigation flair, even insider knowledge. Interpreters listen, select extracts, interpret, and transcribe. They are important contributors to the inevitable “entextualization” process—that is, the ways in which parts of intercepted conversations are categorized as incriminating and thus converted into criminal evidence.

The “Intercepting with interpreters” project is designed to investigate legal, sociolegal, sociolinguistic, and ethnomethodological questions under the direction of Prof. Dr. Nadja Capus, (socio)legal researcher at the Law Faculty of the University of Neuchâtel.

Team

Project leader

Prof. Dr. Nadja Capus
Faculty of Law
University of Neuchâtel

Researchers

• Dre Cornelia Griebel, Post-doctoral researcher
• Dre Ivana Havelka, Post-doctoral researcher
• Dre Franziska Hohl Zürcher, Post-doctoral researcher (2021-2023)
• Dr Damian Rosset, Post-doctoral researcher (2019-2021)
• Elodie Bally, MLaw, PhD Candidate (2019-2022)

Publications

2024

Hohl Zürcher, F., & Capus, N. (2024). Redefining interpreters’ and translators’ roles: unveiling forensic expertise in lawful interception of communication. Revista Estudos Institucionais 10/2, 689-712.

Hohl Zürcher, F., & Griebel, C. (2024).Role making in translational contexts: A qualitative study on the different roles of intercepts interpreters/translators in covert communication surveillance. Translation in Society 3/2, 177-201.

Capus, Nadja; Gilbert David (2024). Intercept Evidence from Foreign Language Communications: Reliability and Minimum Standards in the Interests of Justice. International Journal of Evidence & Proof 28/4, 280-297.

Capus, N., Griebel, C. & Havelka, I. (2024). Multilingual Communications Surveillance in Criminal Law: The Role of Intercept Interpreter-translators. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.

Capus, N., Griebel, & Havelka, I. (2024). Sprachmittlung in der geheimen Kommunikationsüberwachung. Berlin: Frank & Timme. Griebel, C. (2024). Sprachmittlung in der Kommunikationsüberwachung. Reiner Sprachtransfer oder Sachverständigenaufgabe? Kriminalistik 11, 593-600.

Bally, Elodie (2024). Intercepter avec des interprètes. Le résultat du travail des interprètes d´interceptions de communications en tant que preuve dans la procédure pénale suisse. Basel: Helbing und Lichtenhahn.

Havelka, I. (2024). Interpreting intercepted communication: From talk to evidence. Translation & Interpreting, 16(1), 17–37.

Griebel, C., & Havelka, I. (2024). Interpreter, Translator or Investigator? Framing the Competences of a Hybrid Translational Field – Intercept Interpreting. Perspectives, 1–20.

2023

Brodersen, K. H., Capus, N., & Rosset, D. (2023). The politics of informality in criminal procedures. International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice, 74.

Griebel, C., & Hohl Zürcher, F. (2023). The work of intercept interpreters in lawful communication surveillance: a daily trade-off between formal requirements and informal needs. International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice, 74.

2022

Capus, N., & Grisot, C. (2022). Ghostwriters of crime narratives: Constructing the story by referring to intercept interpreters contributions in criminal case files. Crime, Media, Culture 19(3), 380-399.

Capus, N., & Havelka, I. (2022). Interpreting Intercepted Communication: A Sui Generis Translational Activity. International Journal for the Semiotics of Law/Revue internationale de sémiotique juridique 35(5), 1817-1836.

2021

Capus, N., & Griebel, C. (2021). The (In-)Visibility of Interpreters in Legal Wiretapping — A Case Study: How the Swiss Federal Court Clears or Thickens the Fog , International Journal of Language & Law (JLL) 10, 73-98.

Capus, N., & Havelka, I. (2021). Geheime Kommunikationsüberwachung bei der Polizei: eine interdisziplinäre Literaturrecherche zum translatorischen Handlungsrahmen. trans-kom 14(2), 175-196.

Capus, N. (2021). Überwachen mit Sprachmittlern: eine Praxis auf der Suche nach Standards, SKP Info 2021/2, 13-16.

Capus, N. (2021). Intercepter avec des médiateurs linguistiques: une pratique en quête de normes, PSC Info 2021/2, 13-16.

Capus, Nadja (2021). Überwachen mit Sprachmittlern: eine Praxis auf der Suche nach Standards. SKP Info, 2021(2), 13–16.

2020

Capus, N., & Bally, E. (2020), Intercepter avec des interprètes. Les exigences juridiques dans le cadre d’enquêtes pénales, Revue Pénale Suisse 4/2020, 345-365.