Guidelines for the English Translation. of Edited Constitutional Documents

Transcription

1 Guidelines for the English Translation of Edited Constitutional Documents Thomas Clark, University of Kassel Translators involved in this project may be lawyers, legal scholars, historians, professional translators, but rarely all of these things. Therefore, some of the suggestions made as a part of these guidelines might be obvious to some and less so to others. Considering the complexity of the subject at hand, we encourage translators and project editors to cooperate and pool their knowledge, where circumstances permit this. The appended workflow chart may serve as a model of the nature of the cooperation between translator, contributor, and the Kassel editors. 1. Aim of the Translation The translation should aim for an academic standard in terms of constitutional history, i.e. it should ideally represent the closest approximation to the source document possible - using accurate, consistent, and clear English - both in reference to the ideas expressed by the source text and its historical-linguistic context. If literal translation results in adequate English, it should be preferred. 2. Target Language The target language is American English. As a general reference work for language issues, please refer to Webster's 3rd New International Unabridged Dictionary. Legal dictionaries and glossaries as well as existing (preferably academic) translations of similar documents or English secondary literature on the legal culture of the source document should be consulted, where available. The language of American or British constitutional documents (US Constitution, Bill of Rights of 1689) may serve as a resource for terminology. Online resources, such as Eurodicautom may also be of use.

2 CLARK, Guidelines for the English Translation of Edited Constitutional Documents 2 3. Source Document and Annotations The translation must be based on the contributor's edition of the document in question, not facsimiles of the original document. Annotations by the translator should be added to the contributor's editorial annotations, but distinguished by the introduction: [translator's annotation] 4. Style The translation should aim at preserving the style and register of the source text. Modernization and simplification pertaining to length of sentences, formality or idiosyncracy of vocabulary should be avoided except were they are absolutely essential to the comprehensibility of the translation. Thus, an attempt should be made to reflect whether the language of the source document was historical, conventional, or neologistic at its time; excessively formal or colloquial, intentional (or non-resolvable) ambiguity should be retained, etc. 5. Capitalization If capitalization constitutes a statement on the significance of a term beyond normal orthographical considerations in the source text, the translation should adopt it. In other cases, beyond the standard capitalization rules of American English, capitalization should be reserved for referring to specific institutions, offices, and document matter ("the Senate shall consist of thirty Senators" vs. "Usually, senates tend to be smaller than lower houses;" "The President is elected for four years;" "The Council;" "the Constitution," but "a new constitution may not be enacted without the consent of the people; "in Article 5," but "the former article" ).

3 CLARK, Guidelines for the English Translation of Edited Constitutional Documents 3 6. Future vs. Present Tense English language constitutions frequently employ the future tense "shall," such as in "The Senate shall consist of sixty members." This form should be employed when translating imperatives, while the simple present should be used for the statement of conditions and circumstances. This may be a matter of interpretation in some cases (e.g. does an article state that the President shall sign laws, i.e. is obliged to sign laws, or that the President signs laws, i.e. he has the right to decide whether he wants to or not.) 7. Latin Terms Latin terms should be preserved, except in cases where they have a different legal meaning in English. In this case an English equivalent should be employed, with a footnote providing the original Latin term. 8. Legal Terminology It is possible that certain terms and designation represent meanings or institutions specific to the legal culture the source document is part of. For example a certain form of "court" may exercise functions unknown to or substantially different from courts in Anglo-American legal systems, so the term English term "court" may actually not be fully applicable. If a brief and precise English circumscription is not available, the original term should be retained and explained at its first occurrence in a footnote. However, this procedure should be employed sparingly, because too high a frequency of original terms would obviously jeopardize the purpose of the translation. When using terms established in British or American legal culture, consider whether the American or English institution is sufficiently similar to that referred to in the source. If not, a neologism or circumscribing may be preferable.

4 CLARK, Guidelines for the English Translation of Edited Constitutional Documents 4 9. Consistency Identical terms should always be translated identically, both within a document and in related documents, such as a follow-up constitution. The creation of a glossary may be useful. 10. Numbers Numbers should appear as in the original source. Decimal points are expressed by a full stop "." Figures with four or more digits should have commas (four thousand: 4,000; five hundred thousand: 500,000; one million: 1,000,000) 11. Abbreviations Abbreviations should only be used where they appear in the source document as well. Standard abbreviations found in constitutional source documents, usually designating text units, should be standardized as follows: title: tit.; article: art.; chapter: ch.; section: sec.. The term paragraph or the abbreviation par. should not be used. Instead, use or for plurals. 12. Existing and Official Translations In some cases translators may be working with existing possibly quite old English translations of source documents. Where possible, these will be made available by the Kassel editors Translators should critically judge whether they can be adopted without or with minor or major modifications or at least serve as a basis for a translation according to these guidelines. Changes in existing translations may have to be made to synchronize them with the contributor's edition. Where official translations exist, these also need to be brought in line with the contributor's edition. In this case changes should be commented on in a footnote, which may also contain the original rendering of the translation.

5 CLARK, Guidelines for the English Translation of Edited Constitutional Documents 5 Work Flow Model of the Ideal Translation Process 1. Contributor [content competence, linguistic competence source language, English competence of varying degrees] sends final version of edited source, possibly containing advisories, to 2. Translator [linguistic competence in source language & English; possibly some content competence] creates translation from edited source translation goes to 3. Contributor: gives content feedback/advice to translator on translation > step 2 removes edition annotations superfluous in the translation text. adds notes/suggestions for Kassel Editor on problematic issues reviewed translation goes to 4. Kassel Editor [linguistic competence English; coordination of all English translations] checks English clarifies problems or questions with translator or contributor proposes modifications to editor/translator for better integration into edition modified translation goes to 5. Translator & Contributor Approval/final amendment of modified translation final translation goes to 6. Kassel Editor final translation prepared for publication