Status of Court Interpreters in the Czech Republic

The thesis focuses on the status of court interpreters in the Czech Republic as a party cooperating with state authorities (courts and police) mainly in criminal proceedings. It aims to explore the work conditions of court interpreters in the Czech Republic. The thesis consists of two parts. The first part describes general features of court interpreting, the legal framework of court interpreting in the Czech Republic, the settings of court interpreting and the role of different participants of criminal proceedings. The second part examines the status of court interpreters in the Czech Republic through a questionnaire-based survey and interviews with court interpreters, representatives of courts and police officers. The survey showed that state authorities are not fully aware of the difficulty of court interpreting and do not create entirely suitable conditions for its practice. Considering also the low compensation of court interpreters, their status in the Czech Republic is rather problematic. The thesis was partly written in connection with the European project IMPLI (Improving Police and Legal Interpreting). Key-words: court interpreting, criminal proceedings, courts, police, act on experts and interpreters