The Law of Bilingual Interpretation

Mastering Multilingual Legislation in Canada

Canadian lawyers, legal academics and particularly judges face a constant challenge when interpreting bilingual federal or, in some cases, provincial legislation. While statutes are drafted in a manner that aspires to have both versions mirror one another, in practice, dual versions are often open for different interpretations, a situation that can prove extremely problematic. Butterworths The Law of Bilingual Interpretation attempts to solve this challenge by providing judges and practitioners with a clear guide for applying the constitutional rules when faced with the various situations that can arise from inconsistencies in bilingual legislation.

Authors, The Honourable Mr. Justice Michel Bastarache, Naiomi Metallic, Regan Morris and Chris Essert, bring extensive experience in multilingual interpretation to this publication, a book which delves deeper into this difficult area of law than any previous offering. By delivering a comprehensive review of all pertinent decisions dealing with bilingual interpretation from the past hundred years, and breaking down an extremely multi-faceted area of the law in a clear and accessible manner, The Law of Bilingual Interpretation fills a void for the Canadian judiciary.

Features and Benefits

The Law of Bilingual Interpretation tackles the challenge of dealing with multilingual legislation with unprecedented depth, offering readers:

• Expert analysis - building on the landmark Supreme Court case Daoust, this publication sets out a taxonomy of the different types of conflicts that can arise in bilingual interpretation and discusses the set of rules that needs to be applied in each case, including the Equal Authenticity Rule and the Shared Meaning Rule
• Relevant case law - offering detailed summarization of the development of case law relating to bilingual interpretation, this unique text codifies the wide range of judicial decisions, bringing historical context to the issue
• International approach - by providing recent analysis of the rules used to interpret multilingual international treaties, this publication provides the most comprehensive examination of this topic currently available