Translating Lexical Legal Terms Between English and Arabic

Legal translation between English and Arabic is under researched. However, the growing need for it, due to immigration and asylum seeking, among other reasons, necessitates the importance of more research. The asymmetry between English and Arabic poses many difficulties for legal translators, be they linguistic-based, culture-specific or system-based. The aim of this research is to discuss ways of translating lexical items between English and Arabic. In this current discussion I will present, exemplify and analyse the common difficult areas of translating English/Arabic legal texts and suggest ways of dealing with them. These areas involve culture-specific and system-based terms, archaic terms, specialised terms and doublets and triplets. With this aim in mind, the paper answers the following research questions:

1. 1.
   What are the common difficulties of translating legal texts between English and Arabic?
    
2. 2.
   What are the common lexical difficulties between English and Arabic legal texts?
    
3. 3.
   What are the procedures of translating lexical legal terms between English and Arabic?
    

The paper concludes that translating the above-mentioned lexical terms requires expertise, professional training, robust knowledge of the linguistic and legal systems of languages, as well as up-to-date electronic dictionaries and well-defined parallel corpora.

     

Translation and Legal Terminology: Techniques for Coping with the Untranslatability of Legal Terms between Arabic and English

International Journal for the Semiotics of Law - Revue internationale de Sémiotique juridique - The issue of untranslatability of legal terms, particularly between originally unrelated...     

Legal Translation and Cultural Transfer: A Framework for Translating the Common Law into Chinese in Hong Kong

It is widely held in translation studies that translation proper is not merely a process of linguistic transfer but also of cultural transfer. But how cultural transfer is effected or whether it can be effected is not at all clear. The study begins with a critical analysis of the problems relating to law translation in general and translating the common law into Chinese in particular. It then examines the nature of cultural transfer in law translation with special reference to the translation of common law terminology. The study purports to set out the framework for legal translation as cultural transfer, in particular, for translating the common law into Chinese in Hong Kong. It argues that successful transfer of the legal culture of foreign laws always requires the adjustment of translating language and the employment of metalanguage.     

The Syntactic Features of Islamic Legal Texts and Their Syntactic Implications for Translation

Certain religious texts are deemed part of legal texts that are characterised by high sensitivity and sacredness. Amongst such religious texts are Islamic legal texts that are replete with Islamic legal terms that designate particular legal concepts peculiar to Islamic legal system and legal culture. However, from the syntactic perspective, Islamic legal texts prove lengthy and condensed, with an extensive use of coordinated, subordinate and relative clauses, which separate the main verb from the subject, and which, of course, carry a heavy load of legal detail. The present paper seeks to examine the syntactic features of Islamic legal texts and the syntactic translation implications involved through studying three Islamic legal Arabic excerpts and their English translations. The paper argues that amongst the syntactic features of Islamic legal texts are nominalisation, participles, modals and complex structures. It also claims that the syntactic translation implications are indeed syntactic features of legal English, which are sentence combining versus sentence break, nominalisation, wh-deletion, passivisation, modals and multiple negations. Moreover, nominalisation, modality and complex structures are features of both Islamic legal texts and legal English, albeit with varying degrees.

     

法律英语的文体特征与翻译策略

法律英语具有复杂性、准确性、庄重性等独特的语域文体特征,使得法律英语的翻译工作具有极强的专业性特色.作为法律翻译实践的重要组成部分,法律文本的翻译必须考虑到在语言风格、法律制度、法律文化框架下形成的差异,寻求搭建这些差异的桥梁和通道,使译文最大程度地准确传递原法律文本的信息,从而有效提高法律英语的翻译质量.     

法律英语汉译中的障碍及对策——从工具书的角度

学者云,“翻译之事,定名最难”;而古人也有教诲说,“公欲善其事,必先利其器”,故工具书中术语的准确定位事关翻译意旨的顺利实现;故针对法律英语词典的误译、涵盖面不广、未对近义词进行辨析以及大量非词汇化词条等问题,词典编辑者应尽其所能对工具书予以完善,以排除法律英语翻译时因工具书而造成的障碍。     

文化差异对法律及经贸英语翻译的影响

人类的翻译活动受诸多因素的影响,其中包括文化差异。本文作者从英汉翻译实践出发,列举了大量论据,证明中国文化与西方文化之间的差异对法律及经贸英语翻译具有重大影响,值得人们认真研究和对待。     

Middlemen of the Law: An Ethnographic Inquiry into the English Legal Profession

The accomplishments of empirical research are often presented in a context that fails to show the process by which the results came about. This article examines the problems, hitches, and struggles encountered in a research project carried out on the English bar. And emphasis is given to the difficulty of tackling hitherto unexplored occupations that have had a long history of resisting research.     

A Genre-based Approach to the Translation of Private Normative Texts in Legal English and Legal Spanish

This paper aims at clarifying some of the most common issues that legal translators have to face when dealing with the translation of private normative texts, such as contracts or wills, which naturally emerge as the consequence and expression of legal or juristic acts in the scope of private law, in Spanish and English. To comprehend the differences and subtleties regarding legal communication between the common law and the continental law countries (specifically the United States and Spain, respectively), we must unveil some essential clues for their translation and application in the global scope of professional interactions, thus creating a process of inter-legal communication, which takes place through the mutual interpretation and application of two, or more, legal traditions. Through the deployment of a generic or pragmatic analysis at textual or discursive and formal or superficial, strata, of two types of genre within the domain of private law (namely wills and tenancy agreements, or leases) this work aims to prove that both the civil law and the common law private instruments are translatable with respect to each other. An important proviso, however, is that their legal traditions and the genres that constitute the communicative tools of their specialised communities must be duly respected and kept in equilibrium, so that one does not overshadow and obliterate the other. Only in that way can the ??convergence?? of the two traditions truly enrich and strengthen national and international legal culture.     

Translation of the Language of the Common Law into Legal French: Myth or Reality

Translating (and so construinga specialized source text) means producing afunctional text in a linguaculture target textthat is needed for specific communicativepurposes by processing the information given ina previous text in a different linguaculturesource text. Consequently, the comparison oflegal texts and terms from English to Frenchinevitably involves a theory of equivalence –if ever possible. The aim of this article is toreview the various hindrances or pitfalls inlegal translation and also a possible theory ofhow to avoid misunderstandings between thesource and the target texts.     

论法人的独立人格及判断标准

本文对法人的独立人格及取得条件进行了深入研究,剖析了法人责任能力的基本内涵,指出现行立法和相关理论将法人独立责任能力等同于投资人有限责任,从而使法人概念限于投资人负有限责任的团体,不能正确体现法人独立人格的内涵,并导致法人理论的混乱。因此,应当摒弃现行理论,赋予法人正确的法律定位,以适应市场体制建设的发展需要。     

法律英语语境中的多义性普通词语汉译

法律英语中的许多法律术语来源于多义性普通词语。法律语境不但制约多义性普通词语的语义,还可以排除其歧义,制约其句子。多义性普通词语因受语境的影响而导致准确翻译存在很多困难。在法律语境下,要准确翻译多义性普通词语,得熟悉专业知识,做到忠于原文与语境,熟知多义性普通词语在法律专业中的意义。逻辑思维和注释在翻译中也能起到适当的作用。     

Coming to Terms with the Supranational: Translating for the European Court of Human Rights

Translators at the European Court of Human Rights, as at other international courts, have to deal with two different types of legal terminology in judgments and decisions: on the one hand, terms that would be used by a national practitioner in the relevant language, and on the other, the supranational language that has evolved in general international law or that is specific to the Court itself, being enshrined in its basic texts or case-law. The choice of translation will often be imposed by the source text, which may be a constraint; extensive knowledge of the Court’s autonomous terms and other “linguistic precedent” is vital if they are to be used accurately and consistently. The task of devising and using supranational terms to encompass domestic realities in as many as 47 States is not only that of the drafter; the linguist also has a crucial role to play in conveying the Court’s message in a culture-neutral manner.     

The Role of Culture in Legal Languages,Legal Interpretation and Legal Translation

The aim of this short essay is to highlight and concisely explore—but not address in depth—some cultural aspects related to legal languages, legal interpretation and legal translation. We would like to consider briefly the following questions: How can elements of legal language, as exemplified by proper names and euphemisms, be connected with cultural (extra-linguistic) factors influencing language units’ formation? How can judicial discourse reflect the culture of a given justice system? How can the legal interpretation affect the degree of legal culture? Are theories of legal interpretation universal or applicable to specific legal cultures? What is the impact of culture on the context of legal translation? How can the cultural background affect the decision to use terms in translation? How does cyberculture impact legal translation?

     

中国近代“法理学”、“法律哲学”名词考述

在中国,"法理"古已有之。但"法理学"、"法律哲学"名词则自域外传入,并为中国法学家所广泛认知与界定。总体而言,不仅存在着"法理学"与"法律哲学"概念的错混,而且在实质上,"法理学"理论的发展,比"法律哲学"更见成效。     

Advertising and the Price and Quality of Legal Services: The Case for Legal Clinics

Because the holding in Bates v. State Bar of Arizona is narrow and because some lawyers remain opposed to advertising, the dispute over lawyer advertising continues. Many who favor restricting advertising contend that it will not benefit consumers. They argue that prices must either rise to cover the cost of advertising or, if prices do fall, that quality must also drop.
This article addresses itself to both charges. The first section is theoretical, demonstrating how advertising could lower the costs of producing legal services. Advertising increases the volume of services a lawyer can expect to sell. Greater volume, in turn, allows greater specialization in production, more effective use of systems management, and the substitution of paralegals and capital for lawyer inputs. The authors argue that each of these changes will lower costs, thereby lowering prices without necessarily reducing quality. The second section is empirical, comparing the prices and particularly the quality of services produced by a heavy advertiser, the Legal Clinic of Jacoby & Meyers, and the traditional firms in the Los Angeles market with which the clinic competes. Quality is defined both subjectively and objectively, and original data are presented indicating that the quality of service that the clinic supplies is at least equivalent, and on some measures better, than the quality of service that traditional firms provide.     

Entrepreneurial Regulatory Legal Strategy: The Case of Cannabis

This article develops the concepts of regulatory legal strategy, a resource-based view of government agencies, and regulatory entrepreneurship. These ideas are explored through a case study of the limited (if any) access that legal cannabis-related businesses have to the banking system due to the clash between federal law and laws in those states that have legalized some uses of cannabis. This article argues that regulators’ entrepreneurial regulatory legal strategies can have a material impact on regulated entities and give them a competitive advantage. To demonstrate, this article claims that regulators’ adoption of permissive regulatory legal strategies has facilitated access of some cannabis-related businesses to the banking system. Conversely, if regulators adopted obstructive regulatory strategies, this would act as a constraint on such access in the future, even if Congress resolves the federalism issue largely responsible for the current limitations these businesses face.     

行政诉讼监督视野下的法律监督价值

对我国行政诉讼进行检察监督,目的在于及时调节和疏导行政机关和行政相对人间的行政纠纷,发展社会主义民主。面对严峻的行政执法形势,行政法律监督目的并未完全实现。行政法律监督应当包括抽象行政法律监督与具体行政法律监督两方面。以行政诉讼监督效果衡量检察机关对行政机关的法律监督,其效果并不明显。当前随着大调解格局、法院能动司法、检察机关三项重点工作不断开展,检察机关开展法律监督有难点,但也有不少突破点。