Abstract
I. Introduction
II. Research Outline
III. The wide-spread use of English as the language of interpreting
3.1. Statistics on English in Interpreter-Mediated Criminal Trials in Japan
3.2. English as the language of interpreting: the World Englishes perspective
IV. Judgment texts in criminal trials
4.1. Documents read out during criminal trials
4.2. The object of the analysis: a judgment text used in a lay judge trial
V. Findings of the study: the issue of comprehensibility oflegal texts read outduring criminal trials
5.1. Readability and readability formulas
5.2. Reading ease of the selected judgment text excerpt
5.3. Limitations to the use of readability formulas
VI. Concluding remarks
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