Many thanks to Alison Phipps for drawing my attention to ‘Court of Session rules on linguistic analysis’, a post by Joe Bryce on Colin Yeo’s Free Movement blog about a recent decision in the Inner House of the Court of Session – the Scottish equivalent to the Court of Appeal – on the Home Office’s use of language analysis for the determination of origin, otherwise known as‘LADO’. It makes fascinating reading for those interested in questions of language and asylum law. The blog also includes other posts by posts by Colin Yeo where he refers to the RB: Somalia case south of the border, which this judgment begins to challenge.
Joe Bryce’s post concludes: ‘So there we have it. The Court of Session has provided clear guidance that language analysis reports are just expert reports, like any other. They are not pixie dust. Each individual report must be read, analysed, and interrogated, just as we would all (practitioners and judiciary alike) do with any other form of expert report.’ Assistance in the case was given by Sarah Craig, Lecturer in the School of Law at the University of Glasgow University of Glasgow, author of a recent Journal of Immigration Asylum and Nationality Law article on ‘The use of language analysis in asylum decision-making in the UK – a discussion‘, and PI of the AHRC ‘translating cultures’ Research Networking Award on ‘Translation and Asylum Claims: Matters of law, language and silence’.