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Chapter 4 Legal Translation and Terminology Slide 2 Preview Terminology definitions Characteristics of terms Legal terms: synonymy, polysemy, metaphor Legal concepts Legal families Modernisation of legal terminology Importance of legal translation Legal translation and comparative law Types and status of legal texts Goal of legal translation Legal translators competences Drafting rules Slide 3 Terminology 1) the set of practices and methods used for the collection, description and presentation of terms 2) a theory required for explaining the relationship between concepts and terms 3) a vocabulary of a special subject-field Slide 4 Terminology A) subject-area terminology B) vocabulary of scholarly research C) lexical units of general language Slide 5 Terms Terms should be : Accurate Concise Easy to spell and pronounce Allow the formation of derivatives Linguistically correct Slide 6 Terms Should be monosemous (having 1 meaning) and mononymous (consisting of one word), and a member of a term system Slide 7 Legal terminology A) pure law terminology (estoppel) B) law terminology found in everyday speech (title right) C) everyday words assigned a special meaning in a given legal context Slide 8 Everyday words assigned a special meaning in a given legal context: example Welfare of Pigs Act 1998 definition of a pig for the purposes of that law: pig means an animal of the porcine species of any age, kept for breeding or fattening If a pig fails to fulfil either of the two qualifying conditions, iuts owner stays outside the scope of that law Slide 9 English legal terms Multi-word expressions and phrases Polysemy synonymy Slide 10 Legal concepts Law a social phenomenon Legal rules differ in different legal orders Legal concepts also differ Slide 11 Legal concepts Legal science differs from the natural sciences: the laws of nature are the same everywhere. The difference is evident in the relationship between language and its object. The language of a natural science cannot change reality: if a plant is described wrongly or inaccurately, it remains as it was none the less. But if the legislator, in a new law, describes a legal phenomenon otherwise than in an earlier law, then the legal reality changes: law only exists in human language (Brkhus 1956) Slide 12 Legal concepts Where the concepts of two legal systems differ, the semantic domains of legal terms do not correspond with one another Historical interaction between societies: legal concepts of Sweden and Finland _ very close, since Finland formed part of the Kingdom of Sweden for over 6 centuries; England and the US: English law was applied in the former colonies Slide 13 Legal families and conceptual kinship Common law Civil law European law Slide 14 Common law and civil law Civil-law system developed in medieval universities on the basis of Roman law; its divisions and concepts formulated first on the basis of substantive law founded on a number of abstract principles Common law: formed in the courts of England following the Norman Conquest; the conceptual apparatus defined by the requirements of medieval judicial procedure Slide 15 Common law and civil law Common law placed on judicial procedure; English judges higher status than their continental counterparts European law: continuingly unifying the legal orders of the Member States Slide 16 The Legal System of the European Communities A legal system of its own, partly superimposed on those of Member States The founding states of the early Communities - part of the civil-law legal family, the legal system of the European Communities also based on civil-law foundations Slide 17 The Legal System of the European Communities French law considerably influenced the principles and basic concepts of Community law Methods of the Court of Justice - essentially based on those of the French Conseil dEtat; the institution of commissaire du gouvernement served as a model for that of Advocate- General Slide 18 The Legal System of the European Communities German law: principle of proportionality and that of reciprocal loyalty and trust (in performing contracts); The role of academic legal writing when the ECJ takes its decision a feature of the German legal tradition Slide 19 The Legal System of the European Communities English influence: doctrine of precedent (stare decisis) develops in harmony with common law traditions in ECJ; The style of judgments: in 1950s and 1960s, ECJ judgments - stylistic copies of French judgments, esp. in their construction and disposition (e.g. the signal words attendu que); over time, the style of the Court became more independent: construction of its judgments does not come directly from any legal order of Member States Slide 20 The Legal System of the European Communities A hybrid, mixed law in which legal traditions of Europe increasingly intertwine Methods of interpretation of ECJ: a mix of different legal traditions Interaction between the Community institutions and national legal orders in a way not directly borrowed from any legal order Slide 21 The Legal System of the European Communities An entirely new type of legal system, with its own characteristics, developing side by side with civil law and common law; applies to legal systematization and to doctrine relating to sources of law and to individual institutions and principles Slide 22 The Legal System of the European Communities New elements - partly evident in the form of new terminology, partly hidden behind established terms coming chiefly from France; these old terms possess a new conceptual content in Community law Slide 23 Characteristics of legal terminology: Legal Concepts and Legal Terms Concept: mental representation of an object Term: the technical designation of a concept Term verbal expression of a concept belonging to the conceptual system of a LSP; may be a single word, compound or a phrase (e.g. good faith, free movement of persons) Slide 24 Characteristics of legal terminology: Legal Concepts and Legal Terms Terms usually nouns Referent entity that exists physically or metaphysically and fulfils the conditions imposed by a concept (e.g. in France, 175 referents of the concept of general court of first instance (juridiction de droit commun du premier degr de lordre judiciaire, expressed by the term tribunal de grande instance; by contrast, only 1 referent connected to the concept expressed by the term Cour de cassation) Slide 25 Characteristics of legal terminology: Legal Concepts and Legal Terms Legal terms: not imaginable without a legal relationship; can be used in other contexts, but have a particular meaning in certain legal relationships; express legal facts in cases where the features to which the Law attaches effects answer to the conditions that the Law imposes and thus to a legal notion that confers on them a meaning with regard to the Law (e.g. error) Slide 26 Characteristics of legal terminology: Legal Concepts and Legal Terms Legal term can be a word or phrase that only appears in legal language (abuse of process, criminal responsibility), or a word or phrase that forms part of ordinary language but has a special meaning in legal language (consideration) Slide 27 1 concept 2 terms: examples Sole proprietor (US) sole trader (UK) Articles of association (UK) Articles of incorporation (US) Memorandum of association (UK) by-lawy (US) Corporate law (US) company law (UK) Tort (English) delict (Scottish) Slide 28 Relative existence of legal notions: discovery The existence of a legal notion depends upon the wish of the legislator When the comparative lawyer is dealing with the common law procedure of discovery in a case involving a court in a civil law country he will not simply introduce the notion of discovery into his systemic knowledge of this particular civil law but perceive it as part of the other, foreign law system Slide 29 discovery He will not apply the procedures of discovery because they do not exist as long as they are not anchored in the legal system by the legislator This anchorage may be constituted by the decision to introduce discovery into this particular civil law system, or it may be a result of a provision related to the conflict of laws, or a result of legislation concerning recognition of foreign judgments Slide 30 Relative existence of legal notions Existing legal notions can be modified, replaced by others or abolished Connections between term and concept arbitrary Slide 31 Implied terms and concepts What happens when a common law term e.g. punitive damages is translated as condamnation dommages et intrts punitifs or Strafschadensersatz unknown in the French or German legal systems Slide 32 Implied terms and concepts E.g. Verhltnissmssigkeitsgrundsatz introduced as principe de proportionnalit into French-language legal acts within the EU although it does not exist in the French terminology Slide 33 Emergence of new legal-linguistic units A new tort termed intentional infliction of emotional distress added to the list of common law torts Japanese law distinguishes between injury to honor and injury to reputation Understanding of legal terminology - based upon institutionlized creation and interpretation of legal concepts and terms, mainly by the legislator and by courts Slide 34 Classification of terms Technical: promissory estoppel, renvoi, certiorari Meaning different from ordinary language: consideration, equity Preferences: warranty preferred in US, guarantee in UK; antitrust legislation (US), competition legislation (UK), corporation (US), company (UK) Slide 35 Scientific terms introduced into law Terms from other sciences introduced into statutes Do they retain their meaning? In the materials accompaning preparatory work in the Parliament, interpretive guidelines, definitions and other information is contained which allows the interpretation of a concept when it becomes part of a statute The materials may introduce a specific meaning, broader or narrower than the scientific one Slide 36 Scientific terms introduced into law Medical terms e.g. alchoholic or drug addict may be understood in law differently The scientific term becoming a legal term may acquire a different meaning Slide 37 The legal shall Any person bidding at the auction shall stand surety for his own debt until full payment is made for purchased merchandise Shall the binding character Institutes the legal speech act and introduces the binding force of the utterance, i.e. it establishes its enforceability Slide 38 The legal may In certain circumstances a police officer may ask the driver to take a breath test If convicted, an accused person may appeal May = have right to Slide 39 Polysemy Term a verbal expression of a concept Legal terms often characterized by polysemy: depending on context, a single term can express several concepts Polysemy - allows the vocabulary of the language to transmit the infinitely varied ideas that arise in social life (Vlasenko 1997) Slide 40 Polysemy Rule rather than exception Legal orders are continually changing over time Example: ius civile Slide 41 Ius civile Ancient Rome : referred to classical Roman law as opposed to ius honorarium on the one hand, and, on the other, to the law applied to Roman citizens (as opposed to ius gentium) In Byzantium, in medieval Europe and at the beginning of modern times referred to Roman law and to temporal State law, as opposed to the divine law (ius divinum) or natural law (ius naturale) Slide 42 Ius civile In medieval Europe, legal science focused on the study of those parts of the Corpus iuris civilis dealing with legal relationships between private individuals; a branch of law relative to relations between private individuals Slide 43 Ius civile In English: Roman law Continental law Private law Slide 44 Ius civile In Germany: Zivilrecht synonymous with Privatrecht In France, commercial law is not included in civil law Slide 45 Orderly and disorderly polysemy Orderly (consistent) polysemy: a legal term has two or three closely connected meanings; often: the concepts expressed by a term are hierarchical or partly overlapping Example: common law: 3 meanings in English; misleading from the international standpoint Slide 46 Common law English common law different from the pan-European ius commune English common law developed by English courts Ius commune law developed in European universities in the Middle Ages and early modern times Slide 47 Disorderly (inconsistent) polysemy Meanings of the term diverge to such extent that they no longer have anything in common French prescription and disposition Prescription: 1) different modes of acquisition or extinction, 2) judicial order or a legal rule Disposition: 1) action to dispose of a good; 2) legal rule, a contract clause, or a head in the operative part of a judgment Slide 48 Consequences of Polysemy When p. occurs, interpreters of the text should be able to assign to a term the meaning appropriate to the context Often easy to distinguish between different meanings; sometimes impossible to tell what is the correct interpretation of the text: ambiguity Slide 49 Synonymy Opposite to polysemy: two or several terms express the same concept E.g., where magistrates arrange an inspection on the scene, legal French uses: visite des lieux, transport sur les lieus, descente sur les lieux, or vue des lieux Synonymy a common feature of legal terms Slide 50 Synonymy In legal languages with several layers of language, such as English, this is especially frequent Legal English often expresses the same concept by an Anglo- Saxon term, a French term, and a Latin term Slide 51 Synonymy Partial synonyms misleading; mistakes and misunderstandings are possible where the semantic fields of two terms stand side by side E.g. judge and magistrat in legal French Partial s. can be useful in legal language Slide 52 Quasi-synonymy It is possible to draft a legal provision or a clause in a contract without leaving gaps: listing a number of quasi-synonyms leads to a blanket coverage of the semantic field intended: contract practice in common law countries E.g. Russian enables reference to a contractual relationship through several terms which are wholly or partly synonyms: dogovor, kontrakt, soglashenie, pakt, konventsia, konsensus, angazhement Slide 53 Towards modernized legal terminology Modernization replacing outmoded lexical units by contemporary ones, creation of neologisms and semantic change, the modernisation of legal language through plain language rules based on readability or understandability Slide 54 Towards modernized legal terminology Replacement of the term writ of certiorari by certification does not increase the understanding although it modernizes the language His conviction and sentence were affirmed on direct appeal and certification was denied - understandable to laypersons only if the procedure is explained Slide 55 Updating legal terminology Lord Woolfs reforms (1999) Writ claim form Pleading statement of case Plaintiff claimant Minor/infant child In camera in private Ex parte without notice Guardian ad litem litigation friend Mareva injunction freezing injunction Anton Pillar order search order Slide 56 Dissolution of terms or concepts? Legal terminology usually followed the conceptual framework of the Roman law Legal maximes: Lex retro non agit (recent origin) New tendency: the term does not rigidly correspond to a concept any more Different terms in different linguistic forms reflect the content of a concept Slide 57 Dissolution of terms or concepts? Examples Example: piercing the corporate veil (US); lifting the corporate veil (UK); levantamiento de velo (Sp); Durchgriffshaftung A rule permitting veil-piercing in undercapitalized firms can be seen as a penalty default that creates an incentive for firms with low net capital to disclose that fact when contracting with potential creditors, so that the creditors will be estopped from piercing Slide 58 Dissolution of terms or concepts? Examples Reasonable man a standard in common law to determine the appropriate interpretation of party intent in the contract law or the appropriate action in tort law Clinical negligence: reasonable doctor Reasonable bystander synonymous with the reasonable third party (contract formation) Reasonable person Slide 59 Dissolution of terms or concepts? Examples The terms piercing the corporate veil and reasonable man are dynamic; their linguistic status varies and depends upon the structural (textual) circumstances of use. They rather adapt to requirements of ordinary syntax than force the syntax to follow the rules of legal language Slide 60 The future? Future legal language more descriptive than conceptual and closer to ordinary language More guidelines with reference to the linguistic aspects of creation and application of law Slide 61 Problems Modernized legal terminology tendency to refer to ordinary language US state securities laws referred to as blue sky laws; derive from a court decision which described the purpose of securities legislation as aiming to prevent speculative schemes which have no more basis than so many feet of blue sky Slide 62 Problems Lemon laws (US) provide for procedures for consumers who are confronted with mechanical problems concerning their vehicles; applied in cases where a car dealer does not correct a recurring defect in a vehicle within a specified period of time; the purchaser can rescind the sale contract and recover a full refund of the purchase price Slide 63 Problems Some efforts directed towards the modernization of legal terms may not lead to an increase in their understandability Legal vocabulary rarely used and understood in an isolated form Attempts to increase understandability should focus on the structure of legal texts The impact of modernization of legal vocabulary should not be overestimated Slide 64 Legal Thesaurus Electronic data processing allows for broad lexical corpus to be included into a lexicon Legal thesaurus includes not only lexical material but also samples of context, example of use, phraseological units, texts and doctrinal commentaries Slide 65 Legal Thesaurus Traditional lexicographical approaches based on terms Approaches based on concepts (mental abstractions) Lexicographic works based on legal concepts may map the whole conceptual field which includes the typical terms used in it Legal translators need dictionaries Slide 66 Legal pragmatics Depicts how the legal concepts are used as a structural background for the legal argumentation Legal language more than terminology; becomes operative in speech acts Slide 67 Legal translation (S. arevi) Legal translators in high demand today due to globalization, regionalism and increased translation at national level Slide 68 High demand for legal translators Globalization increased mobility of people, goods, services and capital International law and international organizations International trade law International dispute resolution Slide 69 High demand for legal translators Regionalism development of regional markets and harmonization of national laws EU law National level - translation in bilingual and multilingual states Right to use ones langage before the courts Slide 70 Specialized translation Transfer of specialist knowledge from a source text into a target text by a translator who ideally has the knowledge, the competence and the recognized status of an expert Slide 71 Legal translation More than the transfer of specialist knowledge Most legal texts produce legal effects The success of legal translations measured by their interpretation and application in practice, esp. by the courts A translation successful only if it accurately conveys the specialist knowledge in the source text and produces the intended legal effects in practice Slide 72 Legal translation Unlike texts of natural sciences, legal texts are not based on a universal system of knowledge but derive their meaning from a particular national legal system the source legal system The product of a different history, cultural and lagal tradition, every legal system has its own sources of law, classification, institutions and conceptual system and thus its own language and knowledge structure Due to incongruity of legal systems, legal translation is often said to be approximation Slide 73 Legal translation and comparative law Legal translation consists of both legal and interlingual transfer Translator concerned not only with interlingual transfer from a source language into a target language but also with legal transfer between legal systems The target legal system the system to which the target receivers belong and is determined by the language of the target text Slide 74 The role of comparative law The success of a legal translation depends on the degree of similarity of the source and target legal systems, and On the affinity of the source and target languages Slide 75 Types of legal texts PrescriptiveDescriptive/prescriptivedescriptive Legislation, delegated legislation Codifications Treaties and conventions Contracts Judgments Wills Documents used for judicial proceedings (appeals, requests) Academic textbooks Commentaries Scholarly articles Legal opinions Slide 76 Legal translation as communication Factors that have an impact on translation strategy: Type of text Communicative function or purpose (skopos) Legal factors: source legal system, legal receivers and target legal systems, how many legal systems are involved, drafting techniques, rules of interpretation Slide 77 Status of legal translations The communicative purpose determined by its status, i.e. whether it is authentic or non-authentic Authenticated translations legally binding (e.g. EU legislation, UN conventions) Non-authentic translations for information purposes Slide 78 Target receivers in legal translation Indirect receivers all persons affected by the particular instrument, including the general public Direct receivers specialists empowered to interpret and apply the insturment: public officers in government and administrative agencies, the judiciary Slide 79 The goal of legal translation To produce a target text which conveys the content of the source text as accurately as possible and leads to the same legal effects (legal equivalence) The success of authenticated translations measured by their interpretation and application in practice The goal of multilingual legal communication to achieve equality before the law in all language versions; to produce a target text that will be interpreted and applied by the courts in the same way ( uniform interpretation and application of all texts) Slide 80 Legal translator Must be able to understand not only what the words mean and what a sentence means, but also what legal effect it is supposed to have and possess the drefting skills to achieve that legal effect in the other language Considerable language and legal competence Slide 81 Legal translator Must produce a target text that is legally reliable and of high language quality Slide 82 Consistency requirements Use of official titles Citations from prior translations Consistency of terminology Use of official translation equivalents Slide 83 Standard forms Clauses and entire provisions expressing repetitive actions standardized for use in translations and published in drafting manuals Slide 84 Commercial contracts: common clauses Names and addresses of the parties Rights, obligations and liabilities of the parties Force majeure clause Termination Dispute resolution Warranty and exclusion Entire agreement clause Governing law Signature, date and execution Slide 85 Commercial contracts The source legal system is the law governing the contract regardless of the language of the contract; many contracts drafted in English but governed by a different law Target receivers contracting parties identified in the first clause and ultimately the courts specified in the forum clause in the part on dispute resolution Slide 86 Commercial contracts Civil law lawyers should not use model forms of commom law contracts because they contain technical common law terms which appear to be easily translatable but the literal translations often mean sth very different to civil law lawyers International commercial contracts should be drafted in neutral terms that are easily translatable and will be understood by both parties and the competent courts Slide 87 Drafting legal rules in legislative texts Legal rules specify the subject matter and scope of application, set forth definitions and prescribe the rights, obligations and liabilities Translation competence presupposes that translators are able to understand legal rules in the source text and draft them correctly in the target language. They should not be translated literally because drafting techniques differ from jurisdiction to jurisdiction Slide 88 Main elements of legal rules The fact-situation expressing the conditions that must be fulfilled in order for the rule to operate The statement of law which prescribes the legal action to be performed when the rule becomes operative Slide 89 Implications for translators Translators generally permitted to select the syntax and word order that expresses a legal rule most clearly in the target language, provided the content remains unchanged Slide 90 Using language to achieve the desired legal effects in legal rules The statement of law contains the normative content of legal rules expressing the legal action prescribing how the addressee: Shall act (commands), Refrain from acting (prohibitions) May act (permissions) or Is authorized to act (authorizations) Slide 91 Formulating legal commands Legal commands express obligations Shall in legal English used to express the legal imperative; it imposes obligations Slide 92 Formulating requirements Requirements express the existence of an obligation that is usually procedural. Such provisions often require that certain conditions be satisfied and the subject is not a human being. They are formulated in English with must Securities must fulfill the following essential requirements Slide 93 The use of should in legal English Should does not express a binding obligation and is therefore not used in the substantive provisions of legislation and treaties, including the enacting terms of EU regulations, directives and decisions (binding) Should means it is recommended it is used in the preamble of treaties and legislation, in the recitals of binding EU legislation and in EU recommendations and opinions (non- binding) Slide 94 Formulating prohibitions in English Prohibitions are provisions forbidding persons and authorities to perform certain acts and whose performance is punishable by sanction. As negative commands, they are expressed with: SHALL NOT By negating the subject or With the expression IT IS PROHIBITED Weaker prohibitions with MAY NOT express the cancellation of a permission or exception to a general permission. The expressions IS NOT PERMITTED and IS NOT ALLOWED are not used to exress prohibitions in English Slide 95 Formulating permissions Exspressed with MAY; NEVER use CAN Do not use the expressions it is permitted and it is allowed IT IS ADMISSIBLE is used in procedural provisions Slide 96 Formulating authorizations Authorizations confer power upon some person or authority to perform an act Expressed with MAY, IS AUTHORIZED TO or IS EMPOWERED TO