Item Details

Improving objectivity, balance and forensic fitness in LAAP: a response to Matras

Issue: Vol 26 No. 2 (2019)

Journal: International Journal of Speech Language and the Law

Subject Areas: Linguistics

DOI: 10.1558/ijsll.39208

Abstract:

This paper is a response to Yaron Matras’s article ‘Duly verified? Language analysis
in UK asylum applications of Syrian refugees’. Matras evaluates 50 reports by the
Stockholm-based agency Verified AB. He introduces his own approach, which he
calls ‘inductive-dialectological’, and claims that it addresses many of the problems
in Verified’s approach. We respond on a number of fronts. We interpret the role and
duty of the expert performing language analysis in the asylum procedure as essentially
the same as that of a forensic expert in criminal law. We argue that Matras’s
approach fails to adhere to principles of sound forensic evidence, thereby risking
biased conclusions. Furthermore, we contend that Matras’s view on the question to
be addressed is not in line with the trier of fact’s requirements. We also consider the
need for a fixed conclusion scale, the institutional demands driving casework and
the large number of disparate conclusions among experts. We conclude with some
advice to asylum courts and LAAP practitioners.

Author: Jim Hoskin, Tina Cambier-Langeveld, Paul Foulkes

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