What’s new in Language and Law in Education and Training

The Law and Linguistics Interdisciplinary Researchers’ Network (LLIRN) came into being in 2019, after an initial symposium involving a group of academics and students, mainly from Australian universities, whose research is interested in the various intersections of language and law. One of the symposium’s key goals was to learn more about each other’s work and create new opportunities to collaborate.

Six years later, the LLIRN has grown and we’ve held events, published a law journal special issue that showcased the work of several of our (mainly early career) members, and maintain a lively and growing mailing list, now with members from at least 43 different countries, at diverse stages of their careers, including students, academics, language and legal professionals, and those in policy and decision-making roles.

Since the Network’s inception, one key area of concern is how best we can work – individually and as a community – to integrate law and language expertise in various educational and training contexts, be it working with students in schools or universities, or with professionals in legal settings.

In 2024, we set up a blog series to learn (or “LLIRN”) more about each other, and to make our learning public so that others can learn more about us too. In this latest post, we provide a snapshot of some our Network’s activities related to education. We conceive this theme broadly to include both people who have done research in an educational context, where there is a focus on language and law, and also those who have integrated a language and law focus into education or training that they have designed or delivered, whether in a university or beyond.