Abstract
Abstract The paper deals with some problems of legal translation with a particular regard to the skopos theory approach, with a special emphasis on the practical implications of these problems to legal translation instruction. The author presents the circumstances in the Republic of Croatia over the preceding several years pertaining to the activities of legal translation for the purpose of accession to the European Union. This particularly refers to the translating of the acquis communautaire into the Croatian language. Possible functions of translated legal and legislative texts are analysed from this viewpoint, as well as various possible related approaches to solving translation problems. The author pays special attention to issues in translating cultural elements, considering that they tend to show special sensitivity to the function of a translated text. Finally, practical application of the above considerations regarding legal translation is presented in the last part of the paper. Having taught courses in legal translation to lawyers aspiring to work as legal translators within EU bodies, the author presents the contents of the courses and some methods of teaching which take account of the skopos theory, as well as the reception of such teaching methods and their outcomes.
Highlights
The Republic of Croatia started its negotiations for the accession to the European Union in 2005
With the exception of the courses in EU law and institutions and EU databases and sources of law, the courses were mainly focused on language
The course design was approached with several key assumptions with regard to the participants. They were thought to be likely to have misconceptions about the translation process, to be prone to literal translation, to Functionalist Approach to Teaching Legal Translation expect ready answers, to expect to find perfect matches and aim at lexical equivalence seeing it as something permanent and unchangeable, and to have difficulty with the complicated syntax found in most legal English texts
Summary
The Republic of Croatia started its negotiations for the accession to the European Union in 2005. Croatia would have to supply a certain number of translators and lawyer linguists with similar skills to fill the positions in EU institutions. In 2010, a one-semester multidisciplinary programme of training for lawyer linguists was developed by experts gathered in the Centre for Languages and Law. Advice was taken from lawyer linguists already working in EU institutions who had knowledge about the requirements of the position itself and of the types of entrance tests usually taken by applicants for these positions. Advice was taken from lawyer linguists already working in EU institutions who had knowledge about the requirements of the position itself and of the types of entrance tests usually taken by applicants for these positions The programme featured both theoretical and practical courses, delivered over 15 weeks. They were expected to demonstrate in their translation that they understood the text, i.e. that they could handle a text of that level of difficulty, dealing with this specific area
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