Abstract
Legal translation is not only inter-lingual translation, but also a translation of and between various legal systems. Many translation problems may be solved by having reference to comparative law. This is especially critical in the European Union, whose policy of multilingualism and striving towards the principle of equal authenticity in law leads to something close to mission impossible: the reconciliation of the 28 legal systems of its member states into a coherent body of law which would ensure uniform interpretation of EU legal texts. The aim of this paper is to describe legal translation strategies in general, and illustrate them using English–Polish official translations of system-bound terms of the case law of the European Court of Justice. The analysis will focus on several vital concepts of common law, such as ‘equity’, ‘consideration’, ‘trust’, ‘misrepresentation’, and ‘tort’; terms which are mostly absent in the Polish legal system. Comparative law will serve as a tool for the quality assessment of legal translation and evaluation of the equivalence of legally adequate terms.
Highlights
Legal language is strictly tied to a national legal system
The aim of this paper is to describe some problems arising in legal translation and solutions adopted to resolve them on the basis of European Court of Justice (ECJ) case law and its official Polish version
The European Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) in Luxembourg is the judicial institution of the European Union
Summary
Legal language is strictly tied to a national legal system. Legal translation, is a translation between languages, and a translation of and between various legal systems. At the European Court of Justice (ECJ) it is even more complicated, as all the texts are operative legal texts and can only be translated by qualified lawyer-linguists. Their translation must cover combinations of the 24 official languages of the European Union, and reconcile the different legal systems of the member states. The aim of this paper is to describe some problems arising in legal translation and solutions adopted to resolve them on the basis of ECJ case law and its official Polish version. The question remains if such “translationfriendly” texts are not false friends to a lawyer-linguist, and if this arduous task of examining the scope of legal terms from incongruent legal systems requires reference to the comparative law approach
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
