Legal Translation

Hakar Hazim
Part 1

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 Definition
•Legal translation refers to translating texts
within the field of law such as witness
statements, contracts, official reports,
financial documents, and personal
documents.

•Legal writing is exact and technical and

defines legally binding rights and duties.

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•Regardless of the terminological lexical
gaps, ST linguistic structures may have no
direct equivalents in TL.

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 The big question is
• Shall legal texts be only translated by
specialized translators? Why?

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• Sarcevic (2000, p. 1): “Translation of legal
texts leads to legal effects and may even
induce peace or prompt a war.”

• Legal texts have an informative function

for the general reader and a directive one
for a specific group of people.

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•Misunderstanding the terms of a contract
can lead to serious consequences. Conflict
may arise over the legal impact of a
translated legal text.

•Not many jurists (lawyers or judges) are

familiar with terms of translation theory.

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•They ask translators to provide exact
translation.

•It means following the exact words and

here it refers to word-for-word translation.
Another word for that is “literal”.

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 Classification of legal translation

•Legal translation can be classified according

to the subject matter of the STs into:
1. translating domestic statutes and
international treaties;
2. translating personal legal documents;
3. translating legal scholarly works; and
4. translating case laws.
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Classification based on the status of the
original texts:

1.translating enforceable law, e.g. contracts;

2.translating non-enforceable law, e.g. legal

scholarly works.

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•Other classifications based on TL text purpose:
1. Normative purpose: producing equally
authentic legal texts in bilingual and
multilingual jurisdictions of domestic laws and
international legal instruments and other laws.
Frequently such texts are first drafted in one
language and then translated into another
language or languages.

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2. Informative purpose: translating
contracts, court decisions, scholarly works
and other legal documents if the translation
is intended to provide information to the
target readers.

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 • How do you think the second type is
different from the first type?
• Differences:
• First category: the STs and the translated
texts are both legally binding.
• Second category: only SL texts are
binding.
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