Libel, Linguists, and Litigation in Germany

Abstract

This chapter reports on defamation and the role the forensic linguist may play as an expert in such cases. In particular, the chapter concerns an insult case at a German Superior Court in 1974, in which the author gave linguistic expert testimony. It discusses some methodological and interdisciplinary implications of the linguist’s work. In this context, some classical misconceptions will be noted that (German) linguists and people in the legal field have (had) about each other’s work. Finally, the development of the field of forensic linguistics in Germany will be sketched briefly and certain needs for future work will be outlined.

A shorter version of this paper was read at the 50th ILA Conference at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York, 15–17 April, 2005. I thank all who commented, in particular Roger Shuy, Carole Chaski, Peter Tiersma and Blake Howald.