Communicating Sustainability: Perspectives from International Law, Legal Linguistics, and Psychology

Following the growing interest in interdisciplinary approaches to sustainability in and around law, the Austrian Association for Legal Linguistics (AALL) is pleased to announce a call for submissions for an international interdisciplinary volume, to be co-edited by Daniel Green (Croatia), Sarah Atkins (New Zealand), Karin Luttermann (Germany) and Waldemar Nazarov (France). It is intended to be published by Frank & Timme. This volume seeks to explore the intersection of legal communication, psychology, and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Each chapter will focus on one specific SDG, examining how (applied) legal linguistics and psychology can research transformative change by monitoring, evaluating, and critiquing sustainability discourses both regionally and globally. Particular attention will be given to how citizens perceive and interact with sustainability legislation and narratives, and how these perceptions influence and shape public political action. Chapters should address the cyclical relationship between legal narratives, public reception, and policymaking. Empirical, theoretical, or mixed-methods studies are equally welcome. Authors will focus mainly on one SDG but are asked to indicate at least two SDGs they would be willing to engage with in their final submission. This ensures broad coverage of all 17 SDGs across the volume. In case of overlap with another submission, authors will be informed and encouraged to consider the alternative SDG to maintain thematic diversity. Submissions addressing multiple SDGs in an integrative manner are also welcome. We welcome submissions that address, but are not limited to, the following themes:

• Legal narratives and public perception of sustainability legislation
• Communication and popularization of specific SDGs at regional, national, and international levels
• Discourse analysis of sustainability policies and legislation
• Psychological and cognitive dimensions of sustainability communication
• Interdisciplinary approaches to evaluating and monitoring sustainability discourses
• Public engagement, advocacy, and transformative legal change
• Cross-cultural perspectives on environmental, social, and economic sustainability
• Impact of media, social media, and public campaigns on sustainability awareness
• The role of law and (legal) language in shaping sustainable behaviors

Submission Guidelines: Applicants are invited to submit an abstract of 250 words, including the title, theoretical background, research question(s), and methodology. The use of artificial intelligence tools in preparing submissions must comply with good academic practice. Submissions must be original, unpublished, and not under review elsewhere. Please also provide 4–5 keywords and a short list of key references. The abstract, along with the full name(s) and affiliation(s) of the applicant(s), should be sent to sustainabilitycom2025@gmail.com by 31 January 2026. Author Contribution: To support the costs of editing, formatting, and producing this high-profile volume, a contribution of €300 per submission is requested, to be transferred by the corresponding author. If this poses a financial difficulty, please contact the editorial team to discuss possible waivers. Publication Timeline:

• 31 January 2026 – Submission of abstracts due
• 15 March 2026 – Notification regarding acceptance or rejection
• 31 October 2026 – First draft chapters due
• Early 2027 – Intended publication

All submissions will undergo a triple-blind peer review process to ensure the highest academic standards. Submissions should adhere to good academic practice; papers not conforming to the style guide or academic standards will not be considered. ____________________________________________________________________________________

8th International Legal Linguistics Workshop (ILLWS25)

It was an honour and a privilege to welcome our Keynote Speaker: Waldemar Nazarov (Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz & Université Bourgogne Europe).

Waldemar Nazarov (private)

Waldemar Nazarov is a Franco-German Professor of Applied Linguistics, Translation Studies, and LSP Research. His Chair is based at the German University of Mainz and the French University of Burgundy and is funded by the Université franco-allemande / Deutsch-Französische Hochschule. His main research areas include discourse, terminology, and translation in law, the linkage between frame semantics and legal language, and contrastive and cultural linguistics.

ILLWS24 Publication: The Future of Teaching Law and Language (Frank & Timme 2025)

How can legal education adapt to technological change, growing multilingualism, and the demand for inclusivity? This volume gathers innovative perspectives from leading international scholars and practitioners at the intersection of legal linguistics and legal education. It explores themes such as

• the impact of artificial intelligence and large language models (LLMs) on legal training,
• the need to integrate sign language, plain communication, and multicultural perspectives to make legal education more accessible and relevant to all learners,
• curriculum strategies that foster precision, creativity, and critical reflection in students’ engagement with legal language,
• the potential of literary and narrative methods for pedagogy by illuminating the human, ethical, and affective dimensions of law.

The contributions present an interdisciplinary, forward-looking account of current and future directions in teaching law and language. Thus, this volume is key resource for academics, policymakers, practitioners and students alike.

ILLWS24 Programme

17 to 18 July 2025, Rijeka, Croatia

Thursday, 17^th July

CET
08:30 – 09:00	Registration
09:00 – 09:05	Daniel Green, Sanja Barić, Martina Bajčić Joint welcome address and opening
09:05 – 09:10	Karin Luttermann Welcome address on behalf of the AALL Advisory Board
09:10 – 10:00	Keynote Waldemar Nazarov (Dijon/Mainz) Framing Legal Language – Constructing Legal Meaning: Towards a Cognitive and Epistemic Approach to Discourse, Terminology, and Translation in Law
10:00 – 10:15	BREAK
	Panel 1: English in Global and European Legal Contexts Chair: Daniel Green
10:15 – 10:45	Edyta Więcławska Phraseomatic Account of Global English in the Domain of Commercial Law
10:45 – 11:15	Alexandra Kijek Global English in der EU – Effizienz versus sprachliche Vielfalt
11:15 – 11:45	Ivana Šepić Is the Language of Europe Lost in Translation?
11:45 – 13:00	LUNCH BREAK
	Panel 2: Translation, Multilingualism, and EU Law Chair: Martina Bajčić
13:00 – 13:30	Barbora Tomečková First to Interpret, Last to Write: The Issue of Irish Authentic Versions Through the Lens of Jurisprudence
13:30 – 14:00	Michaela Rusch Terminology across Business Genres and Its Legal Implications
14:00 – 14:30	BREAK
	Panel 3: Legal Linguistics Across Jurisdictions Chair: Sanja Barić
14:30 – 15:00	Marcus Galdia Methodology of Research into the Legal Language of Smaller Jurisdictions
15:00 – 15:30	Marlies Alber Minderheiten- und Regionalsprachen als Brücken zwischen Sprache, Kultur und Recht
15:30 – 16:00	Daniel Green, Fabian Sekora Pragmatic Aptitude in Business Mediation through the Law and Language Lens

16:00 – 16:30	Katrin C. Mueller Transplantation Lost in Translation? Building a Unified Theory of Comparative Law and Legal Linguistics
16:30 – 17:00	Informal Networking & Closing of Day 1

             Friday, 18th July

CET
08:30 – 09:00	Registration
09:00 – 09:05	Daniel Green Welcome back
	Panel 4: Lexical Approaches to Legal Language Chair: Sanja Barić
09:10 – 09:40	Agnes Milovan-Solter An Analysis of Verb-Noun Collocations in the English Language of Contract Law
09:40 – 10:10	Thorben Schomacker, Michael Gille, Marina Tropmann-Frick  Text Type Matters: A Typological Approach to Legal Text Complexity
10:10 – 10:40	Mateusz Zeifert What is Specustawa? Making Sense of a Key Term of Polish Legal-Political Discourse Using Cognitive Linguistics
10:40 – 11:00	BREAK
	Panel 5: The Politics and Philosophy of Legal Language Chair: Martina Bajčić
11:00 – 11:30	Josephine Papst Could and Can a Silent Putsch Become Carried Out by Using Words in the Twenty-First Century?
11:30 – 12:00	Mechthild Geyer   The Négritude Movement of the 20th Century as a Critical Linguistic Response to the Ambiguity of Law in France
12:00 – 12:30	Joshua Boivin, Linnaea Stockall Do Lawyers Misread the Law? The Accessibility of De Re and De Dicto in Belief Reports
12:30 – 13:00	BREAK
13:00 – 14:00	ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION & FAREWELL Future Directions in Law and Language Chair: Daniel Green

   

Call for Papers

The eighth International Legal Linguistics Workshop (ILLWS25) will be held in Rijeka, Croatia, from 17 July to 18 July 2025 and co-hosted by the Austrian Association for Legal Linguistics (AALL), the Faculty of Law and the Institute of Democracy, Social Justice, and Sustainable Development at the University of Rijeka. The focus of the workshop is on: “Law and Language in the Past, Present, and Future: Local, Regional, and Global Perspectives” It will primarily address, but is not limited to, questions such as:

• How can critical legal linguistics contribute to addressing and critiquing historical injustices?
• How does the history of legal language use influence current legal (language) practices and education today?
• How may the interconnectedness of globalisation influence norm-setting, interpretation and application of legal language across jurisdictions?
• How do conflicts in and around law affect the future of democracy and the rule of legal language?
• How may legal linguistics foster or disrupt exchange and understanding between different legal systems and cultures?
• How can critical approaches to law and language contribute to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)?
• Can legal linguistics improve the translation of concepts across legal systems in highly diverse multilingual, multicultural and multitechnological contexts? If so, how?

Abstracts may be submitted in English or German or Croatian should be 200-250 words (excluding references and keywords) and should include 3-5 keywords and a selection of key references (3-5). Please also include information regarding the author(s), such as names and affiliations. Submissions should be sent to the organising committee by 1 May 2025 to the following email address: legallinguistics2025@gmail.com Applicants will receive a decision on acceptance or rejection of their submission by 15 May 2025. The participation fee of 50 euros per person should be transferred after acceptance of the submission.   The ILLWS25 Organising Committee                           Daniel Green Sanja Barić Martina Bajčić Matthias Eder Josephine Papst Petra Schön Fabian Sekora ILLWS25 Conference & Event Management   Januš C. Varburgh

 

Past ILLWS24

7th ILLWS24

____________________________________________________________________________________ *** Following the success of the 7th International Legal Linguistics Workshop (ILLWS24), the Austrian Association for Legal Linguistics (AALL) is pleased to announce a call for submissions for our forthcoming interdisciplinary volume titled “The Future of Teaching Law and Language” (working title), to be edited by Daniel Green and published by Frank & Timme. This volume seeks to showcase high-quality papers that explore innovative approaches, methodologies, and both theoretical and practical perspectives on legal language teaching. We encourage submissions that address but are not limited to any of the following themes:

1. Artificial intelligence and legal language instruction
2. Corpus linguistics and legal education
3. Current or future trends in legal language teaching and learning
4. Development of legal curricula
5. Disability, inclusion and legal education
6. Ethics in legal language teaching
7. Hyperonymy and power relations in legal language use
8. Information literacy in legal education
9. Legal aptitude testing
10. Legal language teaching and moot courts
11. Legal language teaching around the globe
12. Legal literacy in professional fields such as the hospitality industry
13. Metaphors in legal language teaching
14. Multilingualism in legal practice and education
15. Semioticising legal language education
16. Teaching law in the multilingual classroom
17. Teaching legal language to judges, prosecutors, lawyers and other legal professionals
18. Law and literature in legal education
19. Translanguaging in legal education

To express your interest in contributing to this volume, please submit an abstract by 25 July 2024. Applications should be in English. Applicants are invited to submit an abstract of between 200 and 250 words, including  the title, theoretical background, research question(s) and methodology of their proposal by 25 July 2024. Applicants should include 4-5 keywords and a short list of key references. The abstract, along with full name and affiliation of the applicant(s), should be sent by email to legallinguistics2024@gmail.com and daniel.green@wu.ac.at. Applicants will receive a decision by 30 July 2024. Registered contributors will receive further information regarding the peer review process and specific publishing requirements. Manuscripts are expected to be submitted by the end of November 2024. Please note that all manuscripts will undergo a double-blind peer review process. Submissions that do not conform to the style guide or lack adherence to good scientific practice will not be considered. For any queries regarding this project, please feel free to contact Januš C. Varburgh (legallinguistics2024@gmail.com) or Daniel Green (daniel.green@wu.ac.at) ***

Image credit: Robert Hammer (private collection)

• born in New York City on 9 August 1940
• Bachelor of Arts, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts
• Juris Doctor, Columbia University Law School, New York City
• admitted to the New York State Bar in 1964
• Associate at a civil practice law firm (1964-1966)
• Assistant New York State Attorney General (1967)
• Principal law clerk, New York Court of Claims (1994-1998)
• small private practice (1998-2004)
• Adjunct Associate Professor of Legal Writing, Benjamin N. Cardozo Law School (1991-2004)
• moved to Jerusalem, Israel in 2004
• U.S. Naval Reserve judge-advocate, retired as Commander
• lives in Israel since 2014

Download the ILLWS24 programme: click here

Download the call for papers: click here

FAQ – International Legal Linguistics Workshop (ILLWS24)

Q: When and where will the ILLWS24 take place? A: The ILLWS24 will take place on 25 June 2024 at Juridicum, Faculty of Law at the University of Vienna between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m CET. Q: Who are the organisers of the ILLWS24? A: The ILLWS24 is organised by the Austrian Association for Legal Linguistics (AALL) in cooperation with the Department of Administrative and Constitutional Law at the University of Vienna. Q: Is there a fee for attending or participating in the ILLWS24? A: No, there is no fee for attending or participating in the ILLWS24. Q: How do I register for the ILLWS24? A: By confirming your participation, you have been registered for ILLWS24. Q: Who can attend the ILLWS24? A: The ILLWS24 is open to everyone interested in the field of linguistics, law, legal linguistics, forensic linguistics, and related fields. Q: How can I attend the ILLWS24? A: You have the option to participate in the ILLWS24 either virtually, via online attendance, or physically, by attending in person. For online attendees, the Zoom link will be made available on 6 June 2024. Q: What language should the presentations be held in? A: Presentations should be held in either English or German. Q: Will attendees receive a certificate of attendance? A: Yes, all registered attendees will receive a certificate of attendance during the workshop. Q: Is there going to be a conference dinner? A: There will be an informal get-together after the ILLWS24 has ended. Details will be provided closer to the event date. If your question is not answered here, please email us: legallinguistics2024@gmail.com

Are you looking for a comfortable stay during the ILLWS24? Check out our recommended hotels below: Boutique Hotel Donauwalzer Hilton Vienna Plaza Address: Hernalser Gürtel 27 A-1170 Vienna Email: servus@donauwalzer.at Website: donauwalzer.at Hilton Vienna Plaza Address: Schottenring 11 A-1010 Vienna Email: info.viennaplaza@hilton.com Website: hilton.com/viennaplaza Motel One Wien-Staatsoper Address: Elisabethstraße 5, A-1010 Vienna Email: wien-staatsoper@motel-one.com Website: motel-one.com/wien-staatsoper

For further information, please send an email to legallinguistics2024@gmail.com.

The ILLWS24 Organising Committee   Daniel Green Christian Piska Januš C. Varburgh Sophie Mochar Paul Schwarzenbacher Maria Pober Cornelia Eißler ILLWS24 Conference & Event Management Januš C. Varburgh