Questions about Questioning: Courtroom Practice in China and the United States

Liao, Meizhen

doi:10.1017/9781316285756.008

Cited by 5 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…Given the research purpose of examining mediation resources adopted as effective mediation strategies, we randomly choose five episodes from the authentic mediation data recorded and transcribed during the last 3 years, including two civil-mediation cases on supporting-for-the-elderly mediation; two cases on divorce-and children-raising court-related civil mediation, together with one more civil mediation case on workplace-accidental-disability-compensation-dispute mediation. These cases are transcribed into written forms of court-related civil mediation data strictly according to Liao’s notation system for conversation analysis (see Liao, 2003), which accumulate about 60,000 characters in Chinese.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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‘I (don’t) want X/Y’: Formulating ‘wants’ in Chinese Mediation Resources

2022

Discourse Studies

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The recurrent court-related mediation discourse studies have focused on mediation participants’ willingness. Drawing on a corpus of five situated recorded court-related civil mediation data in China, this article takes one of the frequently-used mediation resources ‘ I don’t want X/Y’ (here X, Y stands for a certain mediation willingness/intention) as a case study of formulating mediation ‘wants’. It is intended to explore mediation participants’ exploitation of the court-related mediation resources to express their mediation willingness/ intentions: how the mediator manipulates either side of the participants’ mediation discursive concepts; how the mediator shift the trajectory of narrating the participants’ mediation dispute-facts to judging on the dispute-facts; and how the mediator deviates himself from the third-party neutral mediators’ mediating role. The value of analyzing this formulation ‘ I don’t want X/Y’ is to reveal the fact that such mediation practices in their recurrent environments might go against the court-related mediation principles such as being self-willingness, neutrality and uprightness. This article contributes to formulate mediation ‘wants’ strategically and promote the court-related mediation practices in the service of sequentially unfolding mediation interaction effectively.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The final purpose of each party is to achieve his/her maximal benefits through mediation interaction. In one word, this type of mediation interaction is goal-directed and strategy-oriented within the whole process of mediation practice (Liao, 2003).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘I (don’t) want X/Y’: Formulating ‘wants’ in Chinese Mediation Resources

2022

Discourse Studies

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“…The statistics on convictions (47.5%) are very low compared to figures registered in advanced countries. For instance, in 2015, the conviction rate in China was pegged at 99.9 percent, while the conviction rate in the United States (US) was around 90 percent (Liao, 2018). These statistics are extremely high and, among other reasons, indicate how strong and sophisticated the prosecution system is in these developed countries.To supplement these observations made at the desk research phase, the researcher decided to observe exactly what occurs in Malawian criminal courtrooms.…”

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confidence: 99%

Towards the principle of believability: A new socio-pragmatic model in forensic settings

Kondowe¹

2022

Language and the Law: Global Perspectives in Forensic Linguistics From Africa and Beyond

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With such a background, the researcher conducted a study on the conviction rate in Malawi. The researcher first got ethical approval from the Registrar of the High Court and Supreme Court of Appeal. It was a two-tier study.Firstly, the researcher went through a total of 122 files of concluded criminal trials registered from May 2016 to June 2019 in Lilongwe and Mzuzu High court registries. Of the cases, 84 were homicide trials which had entered the court for the first time, while the rest (38) were appeal cases from lower courts. Appeal cases were of different types, ranging from defilement, rape, armed robbery, theft by servant and burglary. In these cases, it was discovered that 64 (52.5%) were acquittals and 58 (47.5%) were convictions. Most acquittals were registered in homicide and sexual assault cases where, according to the judgement reports, the Prosecution failed to prove their case beyond reasonable doubt. The statistics on convictions (47.5%) are very low compared to figures registered in advanced countries. For instance, in 2015, the conviction rate in China was pegged at 99.9 percent, while the conviction rate in the United States (US) was around 90 percent (Liao, 2018). These statistics are extremely high and, among other reasons, indicate how strong and sophisticated the prosecution system is in these developed countries.To supplement these observations made at the desk research phase, the researcher decided to observe exactly what occurs in Malawian criminal courtrooms. He then randomly observed 17 live cases in the Mzuzu High Court registry and Nkhatabay First Grade Magistrates' Court, Kasungu Senior Resident Magistrates' Court and Lilongwe Senior Resident Magistrates' Court to appreciate how prosecutors advance their stories. This phase occurred for a period of four months, from August to December 2019. It was observed that the Prosecution struggled to prove their side of the case beyond reasonable doubt, chiefly because they brought in weak witnesses who lacked the ability to control the amount of information to tell in court. Some witnesses also provided overt and plain responses, which showed that they were unaware of the implications of their answers to particular questions. Some responses from the witnesses gave an indication that they were not conversant with the basic court procedure when testifying, or that they were not thoroughly prepared before coming to court.The outcome of the study is a pointer to some of the problems that the Prosecution system in Malawi faces, which eventually leads to the Prosecution losing cases brought to the courts. This likely lowers people's perception of the entire justice system and its fairness. The Principle of Believability (PB) developed in this chapter can help address such problems faced by prosecution in developing countries such as Malawi. By 'believability' , we refer to the extent to which others can accept a narrative as truthful and credible. The model developed can also help different parties in a dispute in how best to pursue their goals for...

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“…A szakirodalomban nagyfokú egyetértés van abban a tekintetben, hogy a kérdésfeltevések módja jelentős mértékben meghatározza a válasz minőségét (Loftus 1979, Hale 2004. Ez lehet az oka annak, hogy a bírósági kihallgatások kutatói jellemzően a kérdésfeltevésekkel való befolyásolási lehetőségekre koncentrálnak (Harris 1984, Walker 1987, Dobos 2014, Liao 2017. A vallomástétel kérdésfeltevések általi befolyásolása különösen népszerű kutatási terület a keresztkérdezéses (pl.…”

Section: A Téma Kijelölése Relevanciája éS a Kutatás Céljaunclassified

“…Általános kritikaként megfogalmazható ezzel a tipológiával kapcsolatban, hogy a kérdések funkciói nem tükrözik a büntetőeljárás szempontjából releváns szempontokat, a feltárt funkciókhoz pedig nem kapcsolódnak konkrét nyelvi és nyelvhasználati stratégiák, ezért a gyakorlatban alkalmazható tudást sem szolgáltatnak. Liao (2017) szintén kínai tárgyalásokat elemez, és a kérdésfeltevéseket aszerint különbözteti meg, hogy milyen megszorításokat tesznek a rájuk adható válaszok tekintetében, tehát a kérdéseket formai szempontból vizsgálja. Vizsgálatában megkülönbözteti a standard és nem standard kérdéseket egymástól, és kutatásának célkitűzéseiből adódóan kizárja a vizsgálatból azokat a kérdéseket, amelyek nem információ kiváltására irányulnak.…”

Section: Pl MI a Neve (A Vádlottnak)?unclassified

Magyar büntetőperes bírósági kihallgatások komplex nyelvészeti elemzése

Varga

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A kutatás nyolc elsőfokú büntetőperes tárgyalás bizonyítási eljárásainak komplex nyelvészeti vizsgálatán alapul, amelyben elsősorban a bírók kihallgatási stratégiái, valamint a vádlottak és tanúk vallomásai kerülnek elemzésre. Az értekezés legfőbb célja, hogy empirikus és kvalitatív kutatási módszerek révén feltérképezze azokat a bírói kihallgatási stratégiákat, amelyek azt segítik elő, hogy a vallomások a lehető legpontosabbak, félreérthetetlenek és befolyásmentesek legyenek. A disszertációban amellett érvelek, hogy ezek a stratégiák kérdésfeltevési mintázatokba rendezhetők. A mintázatok megállapításában egyaránt szerepe van a kérdések formai jellemvonásainak és a kontextusnak, ez utóbbin belül különösen a kérdező céljának, a beszédelőzménynek, a kontextusbeli evidenciáknak, valamint a hallgatókban kiváltott hatásnak. Az értekezés eredményei a nyelvtudomány és a jogtudomány számára egyaránt relevánsak. A nyelvtudomány számára azért, mert a bírósági diskurzus olyan intézményesített nyelvhasználati forma, amely a hétköznapi nyelvhasználattól eltérő speciális jegyeket mutat. A jogtudomány számára pedig azért, mert a nyelvészeti elemzéssel feltárt speciális jegyek tudatos alkalmazása segítheti a bírósági szakemberek munkáját.

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Questions about Questioning: Courtroom Practice in China and the United States

Cited by 5 publications

References 36 publications

‘I (don’t) want X/Y’: Formulating ‘wants’ in Chinese Mediation Resources

‘I (don’t) want X/Y’: Formulating ‘wants’ in Chinese Mediation Resources

Towards the principle of believability: A new socio-pragmatic model in forensic settings

Magyar büntetőperes bírósági kihallgatások komplex nyelvészeti elemzése

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