Univ.-Ass. Mag. Alexander Teutsch, LLM

Alexander Teutsch

Department of Legal and Constitutional History
University of Vienna
Juridicum
Schottenbastei 10-16, 3rd floor
A-1010 Vienna

Tel.: +43 1 / 4277 - 34595
E-mail: alexander.teutsch@univie.ac.at

Introduction

After obtaining my high school degree (specialisation: classics) in 2015, I studied law at the Universities of Trento (IT), Brno (CZ) and Innsbruck. From June 2019 to September 2020, I worked as a student assistant at the Institute of Italian Law at the University of Innsbruck. After graduating on 01.07.2020, I enrolled in a one-year LLM program in Legal Theory and Socio-Legal Studies at Erasmus University Rotterdam, graduating on 30.08.2021. Currently, I am a freelancer at the Academy of German-Italian Studies (Merano, Italy), and a university assistant (pre-doc) at the Chair for Globalisation and Legal Pluralism (since 01.09.2021).

Research interests

My research interests are located at the interface between law, multilingualism and patterns of legal thought, focusing on their mutual influence. Within this broad field, I am particularly interested in the historical development of the right to use minority languages (primarily in court proceedings), taking into account language policy aspects and resulting linguistic demands on legal practitioners. In addition, I am interested in the connections between multilingual legal terminology, legal translation and comparative law. In my dissertation project, I intend to pursue the following research question: “In what regards can the judicial practice in criminal matters in South Tyrol with reference to its historical development be considered a bilingual setting, and what are the areas where it rather resembles diglossia?” Methodologically, I will approach this work from an interdisciplinary perspective (especially historical sources, sociolinguistics and linguistic ethnography) and, in selected parts, empirically (primarily qualitatively).

Research project

Between bilingualism and diglossia: On the development of an Italian and German language legal culture in Alto Adige exemplified by criminal court practice (1899-2022)

Publications

  • Teutsch, A. (2021). Grundvoraussetzungen eines Strafverfahrens in verschiedenen Sprachen. Europäisches Journal für Minderheitenfragen European Journal of Minority Issues, 14(1-2), 13-29.
  • Teutsch, A. (2020). 'Solidarity and Use of Language in Court - Who is entitled to speak?' In M. Del Chicca (Ed.), New Awareness of Solidarity in EU Law and Beyond (pp. 222-260). Arnus University Books.
  • Teutsch, A. (2023). What was the language of the judgment again?: Traces of bilingualism in monolingual judgments from South Tyrol, Italy. Just. Journal of Language Rights & Minorities Revista de Drets Lingüístics i Minories, 2(2), 89-117.