Translation and Interpretation

Transcription

1 E-Learning Translation and Interpretation TRI 1000 Translation Introduction Module 2 Legal Document Translation Reading Materials

2 Legal Document Translation These days, you can get virtually anything you can think of regarding translations. Some full service companies offer full-range language translations; patent translations, bylaws, summons and complaints, judicial proceedings, etc. - you just name it! Legal language translation covers an array of things, including summons, complaints, by-laws and supporting documentations. As someone who is interested in legal translation services, you deserve supportive and personalized attention to your valuable documents. Commonly, legal language translation providers specialize in precise and well-composed translations to cater for legal documents. These translators are dedicatedly serving various fields with their experienced translations of legal documents, along with their scholarly writings. Hence, legal document translation is a type of translation which requires the translators to follow extreme precision, sincerity and experience. These requirements are important because laws usually have specific language terminologies. Thus, legal translation tends to be culturedependent fields as translators often work in a difficult environment dealing with issues that are extremely sensitive needing timely assistance and professional expertise. As a quality translator of legal documents, you must be careful on the job lest you be charged of mistranslation. There is a case of mistranslation within a single clause of a contract in a Legal English Translation which ended up in lawsuits or financial/goodwill losses. You consider the fact that legal language translation includes (but is not limited to) advanced linguistic skills. What a legal language translator essentially needs is to be specialized in technical expertise and legal norms of both a local and international sphere. Now you understand that in legal language translation, it is the dynamics that matter! To drive this point, companies today have bilingual attorneys, skilled engineers, bankers, or even academic scholars offering the best Legal documents Translation money can buy. Some prestigious translation companies are associated with members from diplomatic communities. Then, there are advanced service providers where you can expect real-time interpretation services, transcribers, audio engineers, as well as fully-fledged services dealing with audio-visual

3 or interpretation equipment. These advanced services or equipment are used for international conferences or meetings that involve sophisticated legal issues. As a professional translates clauses or pages in legal fields, a couple of things are worth remembering. One, any text that you get to translate essentially belongs to a specific (and probably a unique) legal system or culture. This means the source document or text is vastly influenced by the specific culture or origin it belongs. No legal document in the world is free from the reflection of a particular tone of legal language. Second, your target text needs to be read and eventually be understood by a person who is accustomed to a much different legal system or legal culture. The same is true about the language of the target text. The majority of modern legal writing or contracts aim to establish visibly defined rights or obligations for some other individuals. Thus, it is also essential that there is a flawless and effective correspondence of such rights or obligations between that source text and its translation. However, legal translation might as well involve critical parameters like Certificates of Accuracy or Witness Statements. Or some legal translations deal in Deposition, Trust or Will. Mammoth skills are required on the part of the translator when it comes to Articles of Incorporation, or Litigation Documents. A significant chunk of legal documents translation work in the world is centered on Immigration Documents and Property/Exhibit Labels. There are instances when the translator is required to attend court hearings. Hence, these types of translations are tied with and can affect people s lives and wellbeing, so to speak. Because of these terminological lacunae and lexical gaps, a translator might have to focus on many additional sensitive aspects as a reputed provider of legal language translation services; you should be able to come up with smart, quality and professional solutions. These quality solutions are needed as you expect services like international evidence recording, international process

4 services, cataloging services for international document/deed discovery and a large array of research services on overseas legal texts. Now, you understand why legal translation is the translation of texts within the field of law. As mentioned earlier, law is a culture - dependent subject field, thus legal translation is not a simple task. Only professional translators specializing in legal translation should translate legal documents and scholarly writings. Any mistranslation of a way in an agreement, for example, could lead to law suits and loss of money. When translating a copy within the field of law, the translator must maintain the subsequent in mind. This means that the legal method of the source text is prepared in a way that suits that ethnicity which is replicated in the legal language. In the same way, the target text has to be read by someone who is familiar with another legal system and its language. Having said that, a professional in legal translation must be a linguist, a legal intellectual and a bit of a willing detective so that he is able to glean into the finer points of any text presented to him. If you possess this legal intellect, then you should also be willing to research in describing the legal concepts expressed in the source language of a document that may not even have an equivalent in the language or legal system of the target text. In the onset, the translator must decipher the source text and reconstruct its meaning in the target text. There are numerous cases where there are restrictions for the translator to finding a functional operational word or phrase or a parenthetical clarification because an accurate translation is impossible. As a translator of legal texts, you need to often consult law dictionaries, especially bilingual law dictionaries. Care should be taken, as some bilingual law dictionaries are of poor quality and applying their use may lead to mistranslation. Remember, every legal translator should maintain some rules. Translation must be taken from original copies, and should be translated completely and accurately. It should approximately

5 follow the format and layout of the source text. The translator cannot change any name of people, titles and marks of nobility, not even the spelling of that name. It should be taken from original document. As you learn your craft well to become an expert legal translator, you should know that even within the legal field, there is entirely separate vicinity of law that entails specific translation techniques. This means a contractual text has little in common with a determination, an administrative certificate, a judicial decision or a statute, to name a few. As every translator knows, you must consult not only a monolingual legal dictionary, but also a dissertation regarding the subject matter, and that bilingual dictionaries while useful, should be used with vigilance. Apart from terminological lacunae or lexical gaps, as the translator, you may focus on the following aspects: a) Textual conventions in the source language that are often culture-dependent and may not correspond to conventions in the target culture. b) Linguistic structures that are often found in the source language which have no direct equivalent structures in the target language. The translator therefore has to find target language structures with the same functions as those in the source language. When faced with international arguments connecting different languages and legal structures, a legal adviser and their clients would be well recommended to obtain the services of translators who can successfully viaduct the divide of legal systems, as well as language and culture. This is important in order to provide literate rather than literal translations.