Quoting from the case file: How intertextual practices shape discourse at various stages in the legal trajectory

Criminal trial hearings are communicative events that are densely intertextually structured. In the course of a trial hearing, written documents such as police records of statements made by suspects, witnesses and experts are extensively referred to, quoted, paraphrased, summarized and recontextualized. In fact, such drawing upon the (written documents in) the case file is inevitable, as demonstrating (or invalidating) the defendant’s criminal liability crucially depends on the transformation of discourses produced at previous stages of the trial into lawful evidence. Detailed analyses of the various discursive processes through which intertextual links with the case file are established are thus essential for understanding exactly how trial participants negotiate versions of events with specific legal implications. In this special issue we bring together a collection of papers that deal with such intertextual practices in different legal settings.