THE RIGHT TO A FAIR TRIAL: THE ROLE OF THE TRANSLATORINTERPRETER IN THE CRIMINAL TRIAL
The judicial dialogue, as an expression of judicial controversy, is organized in thenational language. In order to observe the principle of audi alteram partem, when a litigantspeaking another language is present, it is required that the dialogue should be reconstitutedwith the assistance of a translator-interpreter. The latter informs the litigant who speaksanother language of “all acts that may affect him to a certain extent”, in order to make thecounsel understand the proceedings and to protect the rights of the person he defends. Thetranslator-interpreter is thus the protector of the rights of the person for whom he translates,allowing the accused to participate in the debate. The presence of this occasionalcollaborator is a guarantee of good justice. Standing among the actors of a trial, theinterpreter is the faithful transmitter of each person’s words by the search of equivalencesbetween two utterances. The translation must render as accurately as possible the intentionsof the author of the translated utterance, thus becoming an “accurate re-creation”, a“creation of meaning”. Frequently based on “syntactical archaisms” and “stereotypedformulas”, these turns do not have an equivalent in other languages.