The recently launched Legal Linguistics Network – RELINE (short for REtsLIngvistisk NEtværk) wants to remedy the lack of dialogue between disciplines.

Now as far as the author of this blog is concerned, that’s always a good thing!

The network, launched by the University of Copenhagen, includes scholars from all over the world – jurists, linguists, rhetoricians, and communication scholars, and also philosophers, political scientists and anthropologists. There is no charge for membership.

The aims of the network are threefold:

• to create a framework for dialogue between disciplines working in the field of law and language which, due to institutional and disciplinary boundaries, do not usually cooperate.

• to promote the development of a truly interdisciplinary – reasoned and self-reflective – theory and methodology of legal linguistics.

• to strengthen the international profile of Danish research, and at the same time to broaden the perspective of international research in the field so as to reflect also the pragmatic line of thinking, which is characteristic of Scandinavian legal culture.

This is what they say about themselves:

We are not just interdisciplinary – we also attach importance to being so.

We want our seminars is to be held in an informal and welcoming atmosphere so that 
everybody will feel free to contribute. There is also a LinkedIn discussion group.

The network aims at developing research theories and methods in the field of Legal 
Linguistics, but it is not only for researchers. It is essential for our work that practitioners contribute with their experience from real life interactions in the field of law.