Teaching Law in Sign Language
摘要
Including signers in legal education and language is essential for ensuring equal access to justice and education. Sign language differs from spoken and written languages, and this leads to challenges for signers seeking access to law and justice, as legal systems are predominantly based on spoken and written forms. This chapter examines these challenges, with a particular focus on the Norwegian context. The Faculty of Law at the University of Oslo has initiated a project aiming to mitigate the barriers produced by the absence of legal terminology in Norwegian Sign Language (NSL) by creating a toolkit for law students, translating the Norwegian Constitution and producing educational material in NSL. While targeted primarily towards law students using NSL, the project also aims to benefit NSL signers and interpreters within administrative and legal contexts. The project will not only improve access to law education for deaf students but also aims to transform the monolinguistic foundation of law education and legal systems, empowering signers to engage in the legal field on their own terms. The efforts and experiences discussed here contribute to a broader acknowledgement of the importance of deaf epistemology and adaptable pedagogical strategies for shaping an inclusive legal landscape.