Universit di Napoli Federico II Facolt di Scienze Politiche Dipartimento di Scienze Statistiche Stef

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Università di Napoli Federico IIFacoltà
di Scienze Politiche Dipartimento di Scienze
Statistiche Stefania DAvanzo On line
reporting European Summaries of EU Legislation
on Asylum
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AIMS

• Analysing the way the EU facilitates and
  communicates legal discourse on asylum to
  citizens through summaries of EU legislation on
  the European Portal
• Focusing on hybridization of genre and strategies
  employed to simplify genres

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CORPUS

• Summary of Directive 2003/9/EC
• Summary of Directive 2004/83/EC
• Summary of Directive 2005/85/EC

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METHODOLOGY

• Genre analysis (Bhatia 2004 Swales 1990).
• Critical Discourse Analysis (Fairclough 2003
  Fairclough 1989)

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The meaning of genre

• Genres can be defined as ?? the specifically
  discoursal aspect of ways of acting and
  interacting in the course of social events ??
• (Fairclough 2003 67).

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The meaning of genre analysis

• Analysing genre mainly means understanding
  what people are doing discoursally and what
  organizational properties characterize a specific
  discourse.

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DISCOURSE AND GENRE

• Discourse has been often configured, analysed
  and understood in various ways, some times as
  register and more recently as genre ??
• (Bhatia 2004 31)

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Discipline, Register and Genre in EU Directives

• DISCIPLINE Law
• REGISTER Legal Discourse /
• Reporting
  Legal
• Discourse
• GENRE Directive/Summary

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From the Directive to the Summary of the Directive

• SOURCE TEXT DIRECTIVE

REPORTING LAW DISCOURSE
LAW DISCOURSE
HYBRIDIZATION OF REGISTERS
TARGET TEXT SUMMARY OF DIRECTIVE
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RESEARCH QUESTIONS

• Is the summary exaustive in comparison with the
  source text?
• Is vagueness of adjectives (characterizing the
  source text) also a feature of the target text?

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FUNCTIONS OF DIRECTIVES

• PRESCRIPTIVE RULES
• a final goal prescribed by the Authority to
• be performed by a given deadline
• a normative message
• requiring national implementation
• allowing the Member State to choose the legal
  instrument
• (Adapted from Polese
  2006 95)

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STRUCTURE of DIRECTIVE

• Directives, as other European legislative
  instruments, are characterized by standardized
  formulas
• (Garzone 2002, Caliendo 2004b).

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Structure of the Directive

• the title of the document, followed by the issue
  date in the Official Journal
• the name of the institution enacting the piece of
  legislation (the Commission or the Council, which
  can enact alone or together with the Parliament)
• the citation formula starting with Having
  regard to (IT Visto), which always refers to a
  previous Treaty or Convention and confers sound
  legal basis to the document
• the section opened by Whereas (IT Considerando),
  also called the recital. This introduction
  provides the general motivations on which the
  legal act is grounded

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Structure of the Directive (2)

• a formula varying in content according to the
  type of document. For instance, Has decided as
  follows (IT Ha adottato la presente Decisione)
  anticipates the Articles of the Decision, while
  in Regulations and Directives the wording used is
  Has adopted this Regulation/Directive (IT Ha
  adottato il presente Regolamento / la presente
  Direttiva)
• the Articles, which vary in number and represent
  the provisions of the legislative instrument
• the date and place of signature, sometimes
  followed by a number of Annexes containing
  tables, references or technical information.
• 
  
  (Caliendo 2004b 164-166)

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WHAT A COUNCIL DIRECTIVE LOOKS LIKE

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FUNCTIONS OF SUMMARIES

• The Summaries of EU legislation website
  presents the main aspects of European Union (EU)
  legislation in a concise, easy-to-read and
  unbiased manner. It forms part of the Europa
  portal, which is published by the EU institutions

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SUMMARIES ON THE EUROPA PORTAL

• This website provides approximately 3 000
  summaries of EU legislation. They are offered in
  the form of factsheets disseminated under 32
  thematic areas corresponding to the activities of
  the EU. The themes range from agriculture to
  transport, presenting comprehensive and
  up-to-date coverage of EU legislation. What is
  not covered, however, are legal decisions having
  only temporary interest, such as decisions on
  grants.

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DIRECTIVE SUMMARIES

• The factsheets aim at presenting EU
  legislation in a quick and easy-to-read manner
• 
  (http//europa.eu/legislation_summaries/about/inde
  x_en.htm).

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ADDRESSEES

• DIRECTIVE SUMMARY
• Member States Citizens
• THEY
  YOU

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From the Directive to the Summary Changes

• DIRECTIVE SUMMARY
• Recital Introduction
• (Whereas section)
• Articles Summaries
• of the
  Articles
• 
  

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From the Directive to the Summary Changes

• DIRECTIVE SUMMARY
• Recital Introduction
• (Whereas section)
• Articles Summaries
• of the
  Articles
• 
  

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CLOSE-UP OF THE DIRECTIVE

• RECITAL (Directive)
• Article 2
• Definitions
• For the purposes of this Directive
• international protection means the refugee and
  subsidiary protection Status as defined in (d)
  and (f)
• Geneva Convention means the Convention relating
  to the status of refugees done at Geneva on 28
  July 1951??
• refugee status means the recognition by a
  Member State of a third country national or a
  stateless person as a refugee

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CLOSE-UP OF THE SUMMARY

• INTRODUCTION (Summary)
• General Provisions
• First of all, the Directive defines certain
  key terms such as international protection,
  refugee, subsidiary protection status,
  application for international protection and
  family members

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Changing perspective

• DIRECTIVE SUMMARY
• Articles Summaries
• of the
  Articles
• 
  

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Adjectives

• Three main choices
• The same adjective
• Added adjective
• Lack of adjective

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Vagueness of adjectives

• Referential adjectives Non-referential
  adjectives

rectangular married
large fast

• They have stable domains
• of definite applicability

They can be specified by a precisification
process
(Pinkal 1995 52)
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Borderline indefinite adjectives

• referential relativism
• fuzzy boundaries

healthy, sick, sweet
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Adjectives

• Three main choices
• The same adjective

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DIRECTIVE

• Article 6
• Documentation1. Member States shall ensure
  that, within three days after an application is
  lodged with the competent authority, the
  applicant is provided with a document issued in
  his or her own name certifying his or her status
  as an asylum seeker or testifying that he or she
  is allowed to stay in the territory of the Member
  State while his or her application is pending or
  being examined ??

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Directive in close-up

• 5. Member States may provide asylum seekers with
  a travel document when serious humanitarian
  reasons arise that require their presence in
  another State.(Directive 2003/9/EC)

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SUMMARY IN CLOSE-UP

• They will receive a document certifying their
  status as applicants for asylum, which will be
  renewable until they are notified of the decision
  on their application for asylum. Moreover, the
  Member State may provide a travel document when
  serious humanitarian reasons arise that require
  their presence in another State.

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Adjectives

• Added adjective

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DIRECTIVE

• Right to legal assistance and representation
• 1. Member States shall allow applicants for
  asylum the opportunity, at their own cost, to
  consult in an effective manner a legal adviser or
  other counsellor, admitted or permitted as such
  under national law, on matters relating to their
  asylum applications.
• 2. In the event of a negative decision by a
  determining authority, Member States shall ensure
  that free legal assistance and/or representation
  be granted on request, subject to the provisions
  of paragraph 3.

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SUMMARY

• Applicants for asylum
• ?? must have a genuine opportunity to consult a
  legal adviser at their own expense. If the
  competent authority's decision is negative, the
  Member State shall ensure that legal assistance
  is granted on request.

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Adjectives

• Three main choices
• Lack of adjectives

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DIRECTIVE

• Article 15
• Health care
• 1. Member States shall ensure that applicants
  receive the necessary health care which shall
  include, at least, emergency care and essential
  treatment of illness.
• 2. Member States shall provide necessary medical
  or other assistance to applicants who have
  special needs.

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SUMMARY

• Member States must guarantee
• certain material reception conditions, in
  particular accommodation, food and clothing, in
  kind or in the form of a financial allowance.
  Allowances must be such that they prevent the
  applicant from becoming destitute
• family unity
• medical and psychological care
• access to the education system for minor
  children and language courses to enable them to
  attend ordinary school.

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DIRECTIVE

• Member States shall ensure that
• (a) If an unaccompanied has a personal interview
  on his /her application for asylum as referred to
  in Article 12, 13 and 14, that interview is
  conducted by a person who has the necessary
  knowledge of the special needs of minors

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SUMMARY

• The following additional guarantees are to apply
  in the case of unaccompanied minors
• person shall represent and help the minor
  with his/her application
• the representative shall have an opportunity
  to explain the purpose of the interview to the
  minor
• the interview shall be conducted by a person
  with the knowledge required to cater for the
  specific needs of minors.

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Conclusions

• Same adjective
• closer to legal discourse

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• Added adjective
• conveys an evaluative point of view

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ADJECTIVES VAGUENESS

• Lack of adjectives
• Apparent lack of vagueness
• Lack of information
• (possibility for Member States to interpret the
  rights)

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CONCLUSIONS (1)

• PARTIAL SUMMARY
• Lack of an exhaustive communication from the
  Institution to the Citizen (lack of information)

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CONCLUSIONS (2)

• BIASED communication from the Institution
  to the citizens (deliberate choice of
  information, evaluative adjectives added)

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• THANK U!!