Bilingual Legal Spanish: Language, Terminology & Access to Justice

This course introduces students to bilingual legal Spanish in English/Spanish speaking contexts, with a focus on legal terminology, institutional language, and access to justice in the United States. Students will develop specialized vocabulary in both, English and Spanish, strengthen their ability to analyze legal discourse across languages, and examine the linguistic and cultural challenges involved in communicating legal concepts to diverse communities. The course emphasizes terminology used in legal documents, ,, administrative processes, court-related settings, and community-based legal communication, particularly in areas such as immigration, family law, labor and employment, and public benefits. Students will also explore questions of register, translation, non-equivalence, and language access, while practicing the accurate and context-sensitive use of bilingual legal terminology.