Bridging the hermeneutic gap: A qualitative and socio-linguistic analysis of maritime law translation for artisanal fishing communities in coastal Bangladesh

Résumé

The paper examines the linguistic and structural barriers of the artisanal Bangladesh coastal fishing people and their knowledge of maritime laws that are Bangladesh Maritime Zones Act (BMZA) 2019 and Marine Fisheries Act (MFA) 2020. We employed interpretive qualitative research design in order to investigate these barriers. In-Depth Interviews (IDIs) of 15 respondents (community fishers and community elders) and Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) of 5 strategic respondents (fisheries officials and NGO workers) were simulated. The study has been conducted in the district of Moheshkhali Upazila that is highly dependent in fishing where Chattogram dialect is predominantly spoken. We have correlated low functional literacy and dialectal variance with syntactic complexity of formal legal Bangla with the help of thematic analysis. In the analysis of documents, we used the deconstruction method to identify the measures of complexity of statutory texts. Findings suggest that the law has a hermeneutic gap, which cannot be crossed, where the Sanskitarized, high-register Bangali enables the law to be functionally opaque to local fishers. This is an under-understanding in order to enable the local elites to weaponize the legal gray area and fine subsistence fishers disproportionately up to 35 crore Taki punishing them both effectively ending their means of living and causing migration due to poverty. The study concludes with the observation that good maritime governance is premised upon the shift to more multi-modal and vernacular modes of communication encompassing visual legal signals as well as a legislative audit of the punitive paradigm to render real cognitive access to justice.