Complicity and the Colonial Force of Law in the Courtroom of Katie Kitamura’s Intimacies

Abstract

This article analyzes the account of the courtroom interpreter portrayed in Katie Kitamura’s novel Intimacies and argues that the book’s account presents the interpreter as an actor who must erase the subjective self in the service of advancing legally defensible narratives. The article contends that this vision of the interpreter, and the novel’s treatment of its judicial setting function as a critique of the colonial roles of law in both systemic and personal terms, and highlights the law’s pursuit, not of monolithic truths, but of procedurally defensible narratives.

Keywords:

• Courtroom interpretation
• narrative
• objectivity
• colonialism

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Ludmila Stern, "Courtroom interpreting," The Oxford Handbook of Translation Studies (Oxford University Press, 2011), 325; Elena M. de Jongh, "Foreign Language Interpreters in the Courtroom: The Case for Linguistic and Cultural Proficiency," Modern Language Journal 75 (1991): 285.

2 Hans Mikkelson, Court Interpreting at a Crossroads (1999), 1; Virginia Benmaman, "Legal Interpreting: An Emerging Profession," Modern Language Journal 76 (1992), 445, 447.

3 For a general description of the Court operation and the role of interpretation, see Francesca Gaiba, The Origins of Simultaneous Interpretation: The Nuremberg Trial (University of Ottawa Press, 1998), 69, and “Stars and Stripes” (20 November 1945) quoted in Ann Tusa and John Tusa, The Nuremberg Trial (MacMillan, 1983), 147.

4 Katie Kitamura, Intimacies (London, UK: Jonathan Cape, 2021).

5 Ibid., “Acknowledgements”.

6 Ibid.

7 The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, 17 July 1998.

8 Attorney General v Adolf Eichmann, Case No. 40/61 (District Court of Jerusalem).

9 State of Israel v Ivan (John) Demjanjuk, Case No. 347/88 (Supreme Court of Israel).

10 Franz Pöchacker, "Simultaneous Interpreting," The Oxford Handbook of Translation Studies (Oxford University Press, 2011), 276; Stern, “Courtroom Interpreting,” 331.

11 Gaiba, The Origins of Simultaneous Interpretation: The Nuremberg Trial.

12 Including consecutive interpreting in which chunks of text are spoken and then translated in full with a pause between each chunk, John Henry Dingfelder Stone, Court Interpreters and Fair Trials (Palgrave, 2018): 57–8.

13 Pöchacker, “Simultaneous Interpreting,” 276–7.

14 Stern, “Courtroom Interpreting,” 333.

15 Agreement for the prosecution and punishment of the major war criminals of the European Axis (8 August 1945).

16 See generally, Gaiba, The Origins of Simultaneous Interpretation: The Nuremberg Trial.

17 “Germany: The Defendants” TIME Magazine, October 29, 1945, 38.

18 Montgomery H. Hyde, The Life and Times of Lord Birkett of Ulverston (Random House, 1964), 521.

19 Joseph E. Persico, Nuremberg: Infamy on Trial (Viking Penguin, 1994), 263.

20 Francis Biddle, In Brief Authority (Doubleday, 1962), 398.

21 Gaiba, The Origins of Simultaneous Interpretation: The Nuremberg Trial, 107.

22 Hilary Gaskin, Eyewitnesses at Nuremberg (Arms, 1990), 41.

23 Siegfried Ramler, "Origins and Challenges of Simultaneous Interpretation: The Nuremberg Trial Experience," Languages of Crossroads (2007): 439.

24 Mr Pine in Gaskin, Eyewitnesses at Nuremberg, 92–3.

25 J.J. Bradac, "Language Attitudes and Impression Formation," Handbook of Language and Social Psychology (Wiley, 1990); James J. Bradac and Anthony Mulac, “A Molecular View of Powerful and Powerless Speech Styles: Attributional Consequences of Specific Language Features and Communicator Intentions," Communications Monographs 51 (1984): 307; Michael R. Hemphill, Charles H. Tardy and James J. Bradac, "Language Style on Trial: Effects of 'Powerful' and 'Powerless' Speech upon Judgements of Victims and Villains," Western Journal of Speech Communication (1981): 327; James Edwards, "Judgements and Confidence Reactions to Disadvantaged Speech," Language and Social Psychology (Blackwell, 1979); Jon Busch, James J. Bradac and Pamela Gibbons, "Powerful versus Powerless Language: Consequences for Persuasion, Impression Formation, and Cognitive Response," Journal of Language and Social Psychology 10 (1991): 115.

26 Susan Berk-Seligson, The Bilingual Courtroom: Court Interpreters in the Judicial Process (University of Chicago Press, 1990); William M. O’Barr, E. Allan Lind and John M. Conley, "The Power of Language: Presentational Style in the Courtroom," Duke Law Journal 78 (1978): 1375; Elizabeth Loftus, Eyewitness Testimony (Harvard University Press, 1979).

27 William O’Barr, Linguistics Evidence: Language, Power, and Strategy in the Courtroom (Academic Press, 1982), 2.

28 Ibid., which include prefatory remarks such as “I think” and “It seems like.”

29 Ibid., which include phrases such as “you know”; and modifiers such as “kina” and “sort of.”

30 Ibid., which include words and sounds that carry no substantive meaning but only fill possible pauses in speech, such as “um” and “well.”

31 Ibid., for example, the use of “sir,” “ma’am” and “please.”

32 Ibid., which include the making of declarative statement with rising intonation so as to convey uncertainty.

33 Ibid., for example, “very,” “definitely” and “surely.”

34 John M. Conley and William M. O’Barr, Rules versus Relationships: The Ethnography of Legal Discourse (University of Chicago Press, 1990), 67.

35 O’Barr, Linguistics Evidence: Language, Power, and Strategy in the Courtroom.

36 UN General Assembly, The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (as amended 2010) 17 July 1998.

37 Leigh Swigart, "Unseen and Unsung: ICC Language Services and their impact on institutional legitimacy," Legitimacy of Unseen Actors in International Adjudication (2019): 18–9.

38 Stern, “Courtroom Interpreting,” 326.

39 Ibid.

40 Kitamura, n.4 at 14.

41 Ibid., 13.

42 Ibid., 13.

43 Ibid., 14.

44 Indeed Kitamura’s narrator herself describes the court as a place of “high theatrics.” Ibid., 15.

45 Hans Mikkelson, Introduction to Court Interpreting (Saint Jerome Press, 2000), 1; Kathy Laster and Veronica Taylor, Interpreters and the Legal System (Federation Press, 1994), 112–4; Cynthia B. Roy, Interpreting as a Discourse Process (Oxford University Press, 1999), 347.

46 Kitamura, n.4 at 120.

47 Ibid, 120.

48 Ibid, 1.

49 Ibid, 4–5.

50 Ibid., 29, 47.

51 Ibid., 19–20.

52 Ibid., 31–6.

53 Ibid., 33.

54 Ibid., 34.

55 Ibid., 41.

56 Ibid., 142, 152, 202, 219.

57 Ibid., 141.

58 Ibid., 142.

59 Ibid., 145.

60 Ibid., 91–2.

61 Ibid., 116–7.

62 Ibid., 118.

63 Ibid., 120.

64 Ibid., 121.

65 Ibid., 129.

66 Ibid., 133–7.

67 Ibis., 141.

68 Lawrence Venuti, The Translator’s Invisibility: A History of Translation, (Routledge 1995) quoting Norman Shapiro: 1.

69 Ibid., 1.

70 Ibid., 1.

71 Alexander Fraser Tytler, "Essay on the Principles of Translation," (1813): 9.

72 John E. Joseph, "Indeterminacy, Translation and the Law," Translation and the Law (John Bejamins, 1995), 18.

73 Stern, “Courtroom Interpreting,” 333; Sandra Hale, The Discourse of Court Interpreting: Discourse Practices of the Law, the Witness and the Interpreter (John Benjamins, 2004), 12; Bente Jacobsen, "Pragmatics in Court Interpreting," The Critical Link 3: Interpreters in the Community (John Benjamins, 2003), 224; Ruth Morris, "The Moral Dilemmas of Court Interpreting," The Translator 1 (1995): 25, 27.

74 Hale, The Discourse of Court Interpreting: Discourse Practices of the Law, the Witness and the Interpreter, 8.

75 Kitamura, n.4 at 105–6.

76 Ibid., 107.

77 Ibid., 175–6.

78 Hans Mikkelson, "Evolving Views of the Court Interpreter’s Role: Between Scylla & Charybdis," Crossing Borders in Community Interpreting: Definitions and Dilemmas (John Benjamins, 2008), 83; Morris, “The Moral Dilemmas of Court Interpreting,” 27.

79 Ruth Morris, "The Gum Syndrome: Predicaments in Court Interpreting," Forensic Linguistics 6 (1999): 6, 9.

80 Morris, “The Moral Dilemmas of Court Interpreting,” 30.

81 Michele LaVigne and Vernon McCay, "An Interpreter Isn’t Enough: Deafness, Language, and Due Process," Wisconsin Law Review 5 (2003): 843, 868.

82 Daniel Gile, Basic Concepts and Models for Interpreter and Translator Training (John Benjamins, 2009), 52; Victoria Félice Vásquez, Roseann Dueñas González and Holly Mikkelson, Fundamentals of Court Interpretation: Theory, Policy, and Practice (Carolina Academic Press, 1991), 30–1.

83 D.J. Heller, "The Language Bias in the Criminal Justice System," Criminal Law Quarterly 37 (1994-1995): 344, 379.

84 Stone, Court Interpreters and Fair Trials, 67.

85 Kitamura n.4, 145, 175–6.

86 Ibid., 22–4.

87 Ibid., 183.

88 Ibid., 13.

89 See, in particular the exchange recounted at pages Ibid., 183–5.

90 Ibid., 216.

91 Ibid.

92 Ibid., 14.

93 Ibid., 116–7.

94 Venuti, The Translator’s Invisibility: A History of Translation, 3–4.

95 Ibid., 175–6.

96 Ibid., 67.

97 Ibid., 107.

98 Ibid., 120.

99 Ibid., 116–7.

100 Ibid., 142.

101 Ibid., 86.

102 Ibid., 142.

103 Ibid., 118.

104 Ibid.

105 Ibid., 15.

106 Ibid., 177.

107 Ibid., 145.

108 Ibid.

109 Ibid., 92.

110 Ibid., 142.

111 Ibid., 198.

112 Ibid., 117.

113 Ibid., 75.

114 R. Grosfoguel, "A Decolonial Approach to Political-Economy: Transmodernity, Border Thinking and Global Coloniality," Kult 6 (2009): 1, 10–36.

115 Antony Anghie, "Finding Peripheries: colonialism in nineteenth-century international law," Imperialism, Sovereignty and the Making of International Law (Cambridge University Press, 2005).

116 Ibid.

117 Martin Chanock, Law, Custom and Social Order: The Colonial Experience in Malawi and Zambia, (Cambridge University Press, 1985), 4.

118 See the discussion in Siegne Rehling Larsen, “European public law after empires” 1 (2022): 6, 11 et seq.

119 Such analytical approaches and accounts are generally grouped under the heading of “Third World Approaches to International Law” (TWAIL). Some of these scholars include Mohammed Badjaoui, Towards a New International Economic Order (Holmes & Meier, 1979); Thomas Olawale Elias, Africa and the Development of International Law (Oceana, 1972); U.O. Umozurike, "International Law and Colonialism in Africa," Zambia Law Journal 3 (1971-1972): 95. See generally on colonialism and law, Renisa Mawani, "Law and Colonialism: Legacies and Lineages," The Handbook of Law and Society (Wiley) and Anghie, “Francisco de Vitoria and the colonial origins of international law.”

120 See, M. Mamdani, "Responsibility to Protect or Right to Punish?" Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding 4 (2010): 53; G. Lugano, "Counter-shaming the International Criminal Court’s Intervention as Neo-colonial: Lessons from Kenya," International Journal of Transitional Justice 11 (2017): 9; F. Boehme, "We Chose Africa: South Africa and the Regional Politics of Cooperation with the International Criminal Court," International Journal of Transitional Justice 11 (2017): 50. More generally see, T. Maluwa, A. O’Reilly and M. Du Plessis, "Africa and the International Criminal Court," Criminal Justice 11 (2013): 563; J. Du Plessis, The International Criminal Court and its Work in Africa: Confronting the Myths (Institute of Security Studies, 2008); A Branch, "Dominic Ongwen on Trial: The ICC’s African Dilemmas," International Journal of Transitional Justice 11 (2017): 30. More generally see D. Akande and S. Sangeeta, "Immunities of State Officials, International Crimes and Foreign Domestic Courts," European Journal of International Law 21 (2010): 815; A. Abbas, "Prosecuting International Crimes in Africa: Rationale, Prospects and Challenges" European Journal of International Law 24 (2013): 933; D. Tladi, "The African Union and the International Criminal Court: The Battle for the Soul of International Law: Africa and the International Criminal Court," South African Yearbook of International Law 34 (2009): 57; D. Tladi, "The ICC Decisions on Chad and Malawi on Cooperation, Immunities, and Article 98," Journal of International Criminal Justice 11 (2013): 199; D. Tladi, "When Elephants Collide It Is the Grass that Suffers: Cooperation and the Security Council in the Context of the AU/ICC dynamic," African Journal of Legal Studies 7 (2014): 381.

121 Harmen van der Wilt, "Universal Jurisdiction Under Attack Journal of International Criminal Justice," Journal of International Criminal Justice 9 (2011): 1043, 1066; on neo-colonialism, see Kwame Nkrumah, Neocolonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism (Panaf Books, 1965); Daniela Sicurelli, The European Union’s Africa Policies: Norms, Interests and Impact (Ashgate 2010): 43.

122 The third camp argues that the ICC and Africa are in a “mutually vulnerable” “lose-lose” situation and hence they need each other; C. Jalloh, "Africa and the International Criminal Court: Collision Course or Cooperation," North Carolina Central Law Review 34 (2011): 203.

123 See, Everisto Benyera, "Is the International Criminal Court Unfairly Targeting Africa? Lessons for Latin Americ and the Carribean," Politeia 37 (2018): 2.

124 Kitamura n.4 at 56.

125 Ibid., 57.

126 Ibid., 211.

127 Ibid., 13.

128 Ibid., 194.

129 Ibid., 144.

130 Ibid., 211.

131 Ibid., 105–6.

132 Ibid., 95.

133 Ibid., 191.

134 Ibid., 92.

135 Ibid., 124.

136 Ibid.

137 Ibid., 135–6.

138 Ibid., 10.

139 Ibid., 10.

140 Ibid., 183–4.

141 Ibid., 185.

142 Ibid., 186.

143 Ibid., 210.

144 Ibid., 209–0.

145 Ibid.

146 Ibid., 212.

147 Ibid., 213.

148 Ibid.

149 Ibid., 216.

150 Ibid., 215.

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Róisín Á Costello

Róisín Á Costello is as Assistant Professor of EU and International Law at the School of Law in Trinity College Dublin and a practicing barrister. Roisin’s work focuses on EU and International law with a particular focus on privacy, language rights and law and literature.