Call for Submissions

The Austrian Association for Legal Linguistics (AALL) is pleased to announce a call for submissions for its forthcoming interdisciplinary volume titled

Controversies in Legal Linguistics

to be published by

LIT.

The volume seeks to showcase showcase high-quality original papers that explore current controversies, methodological developments, and innovative theoretical and empirical perspectives at the intersection of language and law.

We particularly welcome interdisciplinary contributions from legal linguistics, linguistics, law, translation studies, communication studies, corpus linguistics, computer science, and related fields.

To express your interest in contributing to this volume, please submit an abstract by 30 June 2026.

Submissions should be in English.

Prospective contributors are invited to submit an abstract of between 200 and 250 words, including a title, theoretical background, research question(s), and methodology.

Authors should include include four to five keywords and a short list of key references.

The abstract, together with the full name and affiliation of the authors, should be submitted by email to legallinguistics2024@gmail.com

Accepted contributors are expected to submit their full manuscript by 20 July 2026.

All manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer review, which will be completed by 31 July 2026. Authors will receive reviewers’ comments and are expected to submit revised manuscripts by 15 September 2026.

Manuscripts must not exceed 60,000 characters (including spaces), and should conform to the publisher’s style guide and accepted standards of academic integrity and good scientific practice.

The volume is scheduled for publication in January 2027

For any queries regarding this project, please contact

Daniel Green and Peter A. Eschig
legallinguistics2024@gmail.com

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Austrian Association for Legal Linguistics (AALL)

Vienna, Austria

Central Register of Associations No. 1050981907

 

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 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.

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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, 17th 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

____________________________________________________________________________________

The seventh International Legal Linguistics Workshop (ILLWS24) was held at the Faculty of Law on 25 June 2024 and co-hosted by the Austrian Association for Legal Linguistics (AALL) and the Department of Administrative and Constitutional Law at the University of Vienna. The focus of the workshop was legal language teaching under the theme “The Future of Teaching Law and Language” (see programme below).

***

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)

***

We extend our gratitude to our generous sponsors and partners: Obstbaumschule Schreiber, Bäckerei StröckDuncker & Humblot, Restaurant Lebenszeit, Frank & Timme, Vinzirast, Grubers Hotel Apartments Gastein, LIT Verlag, Facultas, Springer, the International Journal for the Semiotics of Law (IJSL) and the International Journal of Language & Law (JLL). We especially thank Obstbaumschule Schreiber for their continued partnership and support.

       

   

facultas eröffnet Fachbuch- und Servicezentrum am Campus der Universität  Wien - Hauptverband des Österreichischen Buchhandels      Springer-Verlag | AEIOU  sterreich-Lexikon im Austria-Forum   

It was an honour and great pleasure to welcome Robert S. Hammer, former Assistant General Attorney  as our Keynote Speaker this year.

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

Programme

CET
9:30 – 10:00 Registration
10:00 – 10:05 Christian Piska (Juridicum, Faculty of Law), Daniel Green (AALL)Welcome address and opening
10:05 – 10:45 KeynoteRobert S. HammerWhat should today’s and tomorrow’s law students learn about the use of language in law?
10:45 -11:00 Break
11:00 – 11:30 Christian PiskaChallenges of generation Z lawyers
11:30 – 12:00 Kamil Zeidler, Joanna KamieńThe law and literature as the future of teaching law and language
12:00 – 12:30 Januš Chaim VarburghResponsibility through legal literacy in hotel management: A practitioner’s perspective on legal language teaching and communication in the hospitality industry
12:30 – 13:30 Lunch break
13:30 – 14:00 Alexander Teutsch, Michelle Albani  „Mehrsprachigkeit im Rechtsleben“ am Juridicum: Ein Resümee
14:00 -14:30 Martina Bajčić, Dejana GolenkoIntegrating information literacy into legal education
14:30 – 15:00 Andrea SteinerEnglish for legal professionals in government and beyond
15:00 – 15:15 Break
15:15 – 15:45 Daniel GreenThe semiotics of law and legal language teaching: Data trends and trajectories
15:45 – 16:15 Silvia Kummer  Metaphorical expressions in legal discourse
16:15 – 16:45 Maria Pober Hyperonyme für alle in der Rechtssprache?
16:45 – 17:00 Break
17:00 – 17:30 Paul SchwarzenbacherWhat is critical legal language teaching?
17:30 – 18:00 Annelise de Vries, Zakeera DocratInnovative integration: Leveraging AI for a speech-to-text model in enhancing legal language teaching within the South African police service
18:00 – 18:30 Cornelia Eißler, Daniel GreenBeyond moralisation: Termination of pregnancy and the principles of legal language teaching
18:30 – 18:45 Closing discussion and farewell

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