Introduction

Abstract

The Introduction sets the scene for legal translation and its outsourcing in a globalized context, and, to show how the project described is positioned in the discipline, reviews developments in ‘Legal Translation Studies’ in recent decades, including its flourishing interdisciplinarity. Key definitions are provided, with an overview of the research objectives and boundaries. The guiding thread of the book is outlined, consisting of the tensions between the briefing and performance of outsourced legal translation, constrained by context and contextual resources, and the potential risks involved, in which the translator’s textual and relational agency forms a crucial hub. The author’s profile is sketched out, to give background to the underpinnings of this practitioner research project, since her position in the field provided unprecedented access to those involved in practice—translators, clients and intermediaries—enabling a wealth of empirical data to be collected on legal translation as it is performed outside institutions.