The Right to a Fair Trial and the Right to Interpreting by Dr. Eva Ng of Hong Kong University

The right to a fair trial and the right to interpreting: An examination of appellate courts’ rulings of interpreting-related appeals
Time: May 4, 12:15 - 1:30 pm
Location: In person in Morse B104 and on Zoom (https://middlebury.zoom.us/j/99927072003?pwd=Ykh4Snk0THFrSEF3ZFZtb1pxK2…)


Dr. Eva Ng of the School of Chinese at the University of Hong Kong will speak on how the right to a fair trial for defendants in the criminal process includes their right to have free interpreting services if they cannot understand or speak the language used in court. The failure to provide adequate interpreting services can be raised as grounds of appeal for potentially compromising defendants’ right to a fair trial. This talk discusses the limitations of chuchotage, a mode of interpreting commonly used in domestic courts. These limitations potentially compromise interpreting accuracy, and the absence of a record of the interpretation provided in this mode can pose a problem for appellate courts dealing with appeals based on deficient interpretation. Her study reviews three such appeals in Hong Kong and identifies inconsistencies in the appellate courts’ rulings and the reasoning behind their decisions, which can cause issues with implementing the principle of stare decisis, and convey ambiguous messages about the standard of interpreting required to safeguard a defendant’s right to a fair trial and about the future use of chuchotage in court.