A Comparative Study of Court Interpretation Regulations ofTaiwan and the United States

• Main Authors: Fu Mei Lin, 傅玫玲
• Other Authors: Ruey-Hsing Chang
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2017
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/5gwbem

碩士 === 南臺科技大學 === 財經法律研究所 === 105 === Abstract Article 5 of Code of Conduct for Court Interpreters stipulated regulates that “An interpreter performing duties shall accurately interpret statements made by parties, witnesses, expert witnesses and other related parties without adding, omitting, embellishing, editing, distorting or hiding the original meaning of the statement.” It only regulates court interpreters’ task of helping judges understand foreigners; as to the rights of persons with no or limited proficiency in Mandarin, there is not related regulation. In contrast, there is a sound and well-developed “The Court Interpreters Act” in the U.S. where court interpreters are asked “to place non-English-speaking participants in legal proceedings on an equal footing with those who understand English to the extent reasonably possible.” It is suggested in this study that the same regulation stipulated. To perform the twofold duty，long-consecutive interpretation, simultaneous interpretation and sight translation are necessary skills, which are the main training points of interpretation majors. However, there are no such training or screening tests in Taiwan. A study indicates that witness and lawyers could be considered less reliable and less professional with interpreters’ continuous interrupting due to a lack of interpretation skills. The study further take the interpreters’ duty for a foreign defendant in oral argument as an example to explain the reason why interpretation performance shall be part of the requirements for court interpreters. Keywords: court interpreter, Code of Conduct for Court Interpreters, interpreting