我国民族地区法庭庭审中使用少数民族语言的现状与对策——以延边为例

Status Quo of Using Minority Languages in the Trials of China’s Minority Areas and Its Solutions: Taking the Case of Yanbian for an Example

我国的宪法、民族区域自治法和诉讼法在规定各民族公民使用本民族语言文字进行诉讼的权利的同时,还规定了民族地方司法机关使用当地民族通用语言审理案件的制度。从延边地区的法庭庭审中使用朝鲜语的情况来看,尽管一方或双方当事人为朝鲜族的案件比例较大,但法庭庭审很少使用朝鲜语。为改变目前的状况,我们应确保通晓少数民族语言的法官队伍,保证每个法律都能够有相应的少数民族语言版本,提高现有双语法官使用少数民族法律语言的技能,建构具有可操作性的法庭翻译人员认证制度。

The Constitution of People’s Republic of China,the Law on Regional National Autonomy and the three major procedure laws stipulate that citizens of the various nationalities have the right to use the spoken and written languages of their own nationalities in court proceedings.Their right is also protected by various safeguards which include the use of the language commonly used in the locality by the People’s Courts and People’s Procuratorates in national autonomous areas during the prosecution and trial of cases.However,using minority languages during the trial is a complicated process subject to certain conditions.According to the usage of North Korean in trails in Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture,although cases that Koreans are involved in account for a large proportion of the total cases,the North Korean language is rarely used in trials.The reasons are various,such as the lack of judges who have a good command of North Korean,the absence of legal texts in North Korean and the inadequacy of the legal terminology,the lack of judges with North Korean legal language skills and the absence of a practical court translation system.In order to change the current situation,we should make sure that there is a group of judges capable of using minority languages during the trial by introducing a personnel system to boost the development of bilingual judges and promoting the training of bilingual legal talents.Besides,a new translation bureau for minority languages need to be established in the national legislatures to ensure that each law can have the corresponding minority languages version.Finally,we should promote the training of existing bilingual judges in order to improve their legal minority language skills.The establishment of a practical certification system for court translators is needed as well.