Talk:Legal translation/Archive 1

Too General

I think that entry is too general to be educative. What about this:

Legal translation means the oral and/or written translation of legal documents under the constraints of the legal trade. Such contraints include confidentiality, protection against high-risks, highly formalised use of language and etiquette (observing titles, ranks and positions), precision (getting names and numbers right) and speed and timeliness (customer driven delivery).

Legal systems of L1 and L2 are likely to be wide apart, therefore the translation of legal documents, such as draft bills, laws, regulations, contracts, appeals, business documents, tetsimonials, certificates, licences, international legislation, etc. calls for the knowledge of the legal system in both countries. In Europe normally a law student mastering two or more languages may qualify as a legal translator for the EU, while in most EU countries people who get a degree as a linguist may become legal translators by having an on-the-job training.

In either case they need to become aware of the stylistic diferences of L1 and L2 too, such as the use of no punctuation in agreements in English and the extremely long passages and sentences. Also, the use of various old-fashion phrases and turns and the TOA, and the definition of terms, to mention a few. (Or in Hungarian for instance, the requirement for a patent claim to consist of a single run-away sentence). Needless to say the braches of law are also differently allocated and no bilingual dictionary may be reliable without specific contextual references and collocations.

When translation is done orally, like in court or at board rooms or law offices, care must be taken to balance between impartiality and rendering what is being said faithfully. Translators are usually required to be sworn or certified interpreters to get such assignments.

Apogr 18:39, 18 Aug 2004 (UTC)