The International Language and Law Association (ILLA) was founded in 2005 at the first International Conference on Language and Law in Düsseldorf, with significant support from Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) Law School, and backing from private industry, including Lovell’s Law Firm. This initiative was driven by legal linguists Peter Tiersma†, Lawrence Solan† and Dieter Stein in 2005. Their aim was to build a network of linguists and lawyers worldwide working on the language matrix of law. In this context, language is not merely seen as a subject in the legal domain or as an object of practical, applied forensic analysis, but as the central medium of modern constitutional states, as the mediator of social conflicts, and as an essential part of legal methodology. While focused on Roman Law and Common Law, its purview encompasses, in principle, all types of law and mixed legal systems.
The Düsseldorf conference initiated a regular series of biannual conferences in various parts of the world, testifying to the eminent scope of the approach: Vancouver (with Janet Giltrow as conference director, Freiburg (Friedemann Vogel), Alicante (Victoria Guillén-Nieto), Kraków (Magdalena Szczyrbak), Kaunas (Jūratė Ruzaitė). The next major ILLA conference is scheduled to take place from 30 June to 2 July 2027 in Naples (Paolo Greco).
In addition, the society organises “Focus Conferences” with more circumscribed themes and is associated with two first-rate scientific publications:
- The Foundations in Language and Law, edited by Dieter Stein, aims to go beyond the traditional surveys of scholarship in language and law. Volumes in the series provide foundational materials – theoretical, methodological, critical, practical – to advance the study of important topics in the field. While all volumes engage conceptually with current scholarship in the area, they also present original research which breaks new ground and indicates future directions for studies in language and law.
- The International Journal of Language and Law (JLL), edited by Friedemann Vogel and Hanjo Hamann, is a platinum open-access e-journal which offers a scholarly forum for research on the interdependence of language and law and ranges from theoretical issues to practical problems in the legal domain.
In 2024, the International Language and Law Association (ILLA) was officially registered as a non-profit academic organisation in the National Registry of Associations in Madrid. This key development strengthens our commitment to fostering interdisciplinary collaboration and advancing research in language and law.
Steering Committee
ILLA was established in 2005 by a small group of linguists and lawyers, including Dieter Stein, Peter Tiersma†, and Lawrence Solan†, who believed in the value of combining Linguistics and Law. The initial plan was to organise an international conference on “Language and Law” every two years, alternating between Europe and North America. This led to the first ILLA General Conference being held at Heinrich-Heine University of Düsseldorf in 2005, with Dieter Stein serving as the conference director. Two years later, the conference took place at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, with Janet Giltrow as director. After a period of interrupted activity, which included the sad passing of Peter Tiersma†, ILLA resumed its activities in 2015. The General Conference was then relaunched by Friedemann Vogel at the University of Freiburg in 2017.
Before ILLA was officially registered as a non-profit academic association on the National Register of Associations in Madrid in 2024, it was governed by the so-called Steering Committee. The scholars who served as Presidents and members of the Steering Committee are listed below.
2017-2019
- Presidents: Friedemann Vogel (Linguistics), Frances Olsen (Law)
- Members: Dieter Stein, Lawrence M. Solan†, Ralph Poscher, and Anne Lise Kjaer
2019-2021
- Presidents: Victoria Guillén-Nieto (Linguistics), Frances Olsen (Law)
- Members: Dieter Stein, Friedemann Vogel, Ralph Poscher, Anne Lise Kjaer, and Janet Giltrow
2021-2023
- Presidents: Magdalena Szczyrbak (Linguistics) and Benedict Pirker (Law)
- Members: Dieter Stein, Friedemann Vogel, Anne Lise Kjaer, Frances Olsen, Janet Giltrow, and Victoria Guillén-Nieto