Multilingual Legal Information Access: an Overview

Multilingualism is a phenomenon which greatly affects the efficiency of information exchange among people in every sector of life. Cross-language retrieval systems are tools that contribute to such exchange, supporting research and world-wide communication, helping to search for data irrespective of the language in which information objects are expressed. In particular, in the domain of law a vast category of users need to exchange legal information world-wide and carry out activities in a context where a common understanding of law beyond language barri-ers is highly desired. However, this requirement is hard to meet, due to the variety of languages and modes in which the legal discourse is expressed as well as to the diversity of legal orders and the legal concepts on which these systems are founded. The phenomenon of multilingualism in the law1. Internationalisation and increasing globalisation of the market economy and social pat-terns of life have created a situation where the need for legal information from foreign countries and from different legal systems is greater than ever before. There is no doubt that the exchange of information is largely dependent on language, to be intended not only as a system of symbols, but also as a means of communication (Wittgenstein 1997) an