An Investigation into the Legal Translation Guideline: With Special Reference to the Korea-US FTA

Abstract

The translation guideline (institutional translation) as a research topic has been overlooked for so long. The under-representation of this line of enquiry in Translation Studies (TS) seems attributable largely to lack of research subjects, i.e. translation guidelines. It is very interesting, in this respect, that the Korean government unveiled a translation guideline for the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA) in 2007 in order to promote the public's understanding of the trade accord. This study examines the KORUS FTA translation guideline from the viewpoint of legal translation. The KORUS FTA translation guideline is comprised of three parts: (1) General Translation Principles; (2) Glossary; and (3) References. The discussion in this paper is centered around the first part (General Translation Principles) that contains some important aspects of legal translation. They are ‘literalness,’ ‘legal terminology,’ ‘plural marking,’ ‘plain Korean movement’ and ‘performative auxiliary verbs,’ to name but a few. After analyzing the guideline from the standpoint of legal translation, this paper explores the implications of the guideline for both TS and translation practices.