Discursive mediation of expert knowledge to a lay audience: An analysis of Russian jury instructions

Abstract

Russian jury instructions have not previously been analysed in terms of the explanatory strategies employed in expert-lay discourse, where abstract concepts need to be displayed in a way that enables a lay audience to understand them. The current study was motivated by the lack of explicit guidance for interacting with lay persons in Russian courtroom trials, and by the challenges faced by jury members in attempting to understand abstract and(or) unfamiliar legal concepts. The results underpin the article’s central argument that the explanatory strategies can overcome the incomprehensibility of expert texts, indicating that efforts should be made to explain abstract legal concepts to a lay audience. These strategies are: 1) definitions selected to explain the meaning of legal terms; 2) descriptions employed to communicate new knowledge by relating it to existing knowledge; 3) examples used with the intention of avoiding communication problems by referring complex legal concepts to concrete objects or events; 4) metaphors that facilitate jurors’ comprehension of abstract legal information by bringing it closer to their everyday experience; 5) synonyms which provide alternatives to abstract legal concepts from everyday language. The research could be extended further by carrying out studies on explanatory strategies in other specialised domains where technical expert texts create a demand for expert-to-lay translation.