Legal-Linguistic Perspectives on Human Rights Judicial Discourse

This book is the final research outcome of a two-year interdisciplinary research project which explores the areas of Human Rights, Discourse and Law, and Gender and Sexuality. It analyses the discursive constructions in case law related to sexual, reproductive, and parental rights in selected international and European Courts, including the European Court of Human Rights, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and the Court of Justice of the European Union, through a legal-linguistic interdisciplinary approach.

This book explores the impact of PSB (prejudice, stereotypes, and bias) in human rights judicial discourse as well as anti-PSB strategies adopted by the selected courts. Through a mixed methodology, involving corpus-based analyses, linguists and legal experts investigate key topics in the areas of parenthood, sexuality, and reproduction, including abortion, surrogacy, health-related issues, and sexual violence. Ultimately, this book aims to respond to questions including: can PSB be traced in how judges express their decisions about sexual, reproductive and parental rights involving people sharing a specific gender, sexual orientation, or gender identity? If so, what is the impact and how can we eradicate PSB in discourse and protect against gender- and LGBTIQ+-based PSB, especially in the access to sexual, reproductive, and parental rights?

Gianluca Pontrandolfo is Associate Professor of Spanish Language, Translation and Linguistics at University of Trieste, Italy.

Carmelo Danisi is Associate Professor of Public International Law at Alma Mater Studiorum - University of Bologna, Italy.