Parlez-vous anglais ? Sprechen Sie Englisch? Вы говорите английскую язык? Μιλάτε τα αγγλικά;

If you answered, No, Nein, Niet et al than you probably won’t understand the rest of this blog, despite its relevance to you. After hearing Russel in class tell Lanny that if he did his rule based system in French he would give him extra marks, I decided to ponder the idea of language…hmmmmm- pondering…language? Well as we know language is the key communication tool in life and is of extreme importance in the legal sphere. In law, every word affects the way one analyses the meaning of say cases or statute. Language is also important in terms of computer applications – whether the language is Java, ASCII, HTML it is a way to present information. In the Information Technology industry, English is seen as the standard language used by companies in this field around the world. Most programs, keyboards etc were designed with the English language and alphabet in mind – lucky us English speakers, not so lucky us Inuit speakers (grrr…I hate French key boards…you have to make three key strokes for full stop…grrr) So how can we resolve the issue that when computers are applied to legal systems, they are generally English based as that is the standard ‘Computer Language’. Unfortunately, an expert system shell made in Australia, is not so viable to be used in China or Kenya unless it has been coded as well in those languages. This also raises issues of equity as access to good legal systems in non-English or dominant languages will be hard to come by.