Explore the vast range of titles available.

This paper represents a case study of the translation of a criminal conclusion from Romanian into English. It resorts to the American Translation Association translation evaluation system to detail on the categories/ types of errors made and to evaluate the quality of the translated document, thus demonstrating the usefulness of such a grid for legal translation assessment (so much so that, in Romania, no grid of the kind is available).

The expression “intersemiotic legal translation” refers to all forms of legal translation that use at least two different semiotic codes, of which at least one is not verbal. The article will analyze four different conceptions of intersemiotic translation by highlighting the different potential applications in the legal field, as well as the limitations related to this form of translation. The concept of “intersemiotic legal translation” will be examined as a species of the genus “legal translation”, and will be framed according to a typology consisting of six types of legal translation that will take both its semiotic and its legal dimensions into account.

It is a well-acknowledged fact in legal translation studies that when searching for terminological equivalents, translators should make use of comparative conceptual analysis (e.g. Sandrini 1996; Chromá 2014; Engberg 2015). Thus, legal translation trainees should be equipped with the necessary tools to carry out such analysis, but the question remains: are they? This paper is a follow-up to a study published in 2017 (Klabal, Knap-Dlouhá and Kubánek 2017), where modified think aloud protocols were used to explore the following research question: to what degree are university students doing a course in legal and economic translation able to apply the methods of comparative conceptual analysis to translation of terms not accounted for sufficiently in legal dictionaries or terms with no straightforward equivalents. The results showed that major issues involve non-linearity of the analysis carried out and insufficient use of the resources available. The present study involves a different group of 29 BA students of the same course two years later, who were assigned the same task. As the retrospective protocols fail to simulate real-life conditions, this study uses screen recording and keystroke logging to track the processes leading to the identification of the conceptual equivalent in a more detailed and less subject-dependent manner. The results suggest that the steps most challenging for students include identification of relevant (essential) features defining the source and target language concepts, comparison of these features and selection, or creation, of an equivalent term reflecting the results of the analysis. Students also frequently show Google-driven searching, which influences the order of the steps performed in their analyses and the sources used. To address these challenges, translation training should include a range of tailor-made exercises focusing on the critical steps of the analysis as well as on improving web searching skills.

The field of Legal translation and interpreting has strongly expanded over recent years. As it has developed into an independent branch of Translation Studies, this book advocates for a substantiated discussion of methods and methodology, as well as knowledge about the variety of approaches actually applied in the field. It is argued that, complex and multifaceted as it is, legal translation calls for research that might cross boundaries across research approaches and disciplines in order to shed light on the many facets of this social practice. The volume addresses the challenge of methodological consolidation, triangulation and refinement. The work presents examples of the variety of theoretical approaches which have been developed in the discipline and of the methodological sophistication which is currently being called for. In this regard, by combining different perspectives, they expand our understanding of the roles played by legal translators and interpreters, who emerge as linguistic and intercultural mediators dealing with a rich variety of legal texts; as knowledge communicators and as builders of specialised knowledge; as social agents performing a socially-situated activity; as decision-makers and agents subject to and redefining power relations, and as political actors shaping legal cultures and negotiating cultural identities, as well as their own professional identity. Chapter 2 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license. https://tandfbis.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/rt-files/docs/Open+Access+Chapters/9781138492103_oachapter2.pdf

This paper is concerned with the concept of translation competence as seen from the perspective of translational hermeneutics. The first part of the article provides a short survey of how translation competence and its develop- ment has been described so far, with a particular focus on the legal translator’s skills and abilities. The second part of the paper briefly presents the notion of translational hermeneutics together with its main concepts. The aim of this part of the article is also to show similarities between the translation phenomenon and hermeneutical studies. Finally, building on Stolze’s (2011) hermeneutical model of translation, the last part of the paper presents the main features of a hermeneutical model of legal translation competence.

This paper offers an overview of the development of Legal Translation Studies as a major interdiscipline within Translation Studies. It reviews key elements that shape its specificity and constitute the shared ground of its research community: object of study, place within academia, denomination, historical milestones and key approaches. This review elicits the different stages of evolution leading to the field’s current position and its particular interaction with Law. The focus is placed on commonalities as a means to identify distinctive reference points and avenues for further development. A comprehensive categorization of legal texts and the systematic scrutiny of contextual variables are highlighted as pivotal in defining the scope of the discipline and in proposing overarching conceptual and methodological models. Analyzing the applicability of these models and their impact on legal translation quality is considered a priority in order to reinforce interdisciplinary specificity in line with professional needs.

The author intends to present a possibility of parametrising legal terminology in order to reveal semantic and systemic relations at the intralingual and interlingual levels. The scope of the research comprises selected legal terminology from the following legal systems: Polish, British, American and European Union. The research methods used include: (i) the analysis of comparable texts, (ii) the method of parametrisation of the legal linguistic reality, (iii) the concept of adjusting translation to the communicative needs and requirements of the recipient community. The research hypothesis is that parametrisation of legal terminology in respect of semantic and systemic relations may be a useful tool in organising and comparing terminology for the purpose of legal translation. First the relation of synonymy binding terms at the intralingual and interlingual levels in the light of systemic and genre-related relations is discussed. The proposal is illustrated with examples of legal terms and the networks of relations binding them in English and Polish. The conclusions are that such an approach is systematic and provides a translator with information necessary to render communicatively efficient translations.

Legal transactions have permeated every aspect of our life. Much of this is accomplished through legal translators who, by their outputs, impact our personal and professional future. That said, this article seeks to tackle the challenges and opportunities in preparing legal translators for professional practice. The article is a quality review in its nature which adopts the descriptive approach. The interactionist perspective is adopted in this present article to examine the challenges faced by and the opportunities offered to legal translators under training. This examination is placed within the context of the rapidly evolving translation industry and its related interdisciplinary research, which covers the technology and legal translation, quality in legal translation, and training pathways for legal translators. The subjective perspective is acknowledged as the human experience is involved to explain the individual phenomena within broader context of legal translation profession. The article draws that there is a need to make changes in the legal translation status because we need to improve the translator’s perception of their role. Moreover, training models adopted to prepare legal translators have to be updated by revising the outdated practices of legal translation, and integrating the social role to face the new challenges as the translators are the intercultural mediators who facilitate the international legal communication.

This study seeks to examine the effects of the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)-assisted tools (ChatGPT and DeepL) on the quality of legal translation outputs by Jordanian undergraduates. As legal translation necessitates a high degree of specificity, context, and accuracy in the utilization of terminology, the following research will explore whether AI can help students accomplish this requirement. To achieve the research objective, a case study that combined methods was employed. A sample of 68 third- and fourth-year students from Zarqa University and Mutah University who specialize in translation was chosen to participate in the study. The participants were required to complete a pre-test and a post-test, each of which included legal texts (statutes, contracts, and court rulings). The following day's session involved utilizing AI. The quantitative analysis of the data collected from the exams and surveys indicated how terminology, grammar, context, and fluency improved translation quality. Qualitative analysis of surveys and interviews revealed participants' perceptions of their experiences and resources. The study's findings showed that using AI technologies to improve terminology, grammar, context, and fluency resulted in increased translation quality. Students also believed that the tools increased their confidence and efficiency; however, they also had concerns about overreliance on AI and the potential lack of legal content handling ability in the tools. Finally, this study revealed the pedagogical potential of using AI tools in legal translation training while pointing to the need for continuous human control and critical thinking.

The paper discusses the problem of translating selected Civil Procedure terminology from Greek into Polish and from Polish into Greek. The research material includes corpora of normative acts and more precisely those, which regulate Civil Procedure of Poland, Greece and the Republic of Cyprus. The research methodology is based on the concept of parameterisation, according to which the legal linguistic reality becomes axiomatic. Then the set of relevant dimensions and parameters is extracted. The set of parameters are a tool where certain information is given: yes/no/none and thus a clear result of comparison between legal system bond terminology can be drawn up. The results of this comparative analysis provide highly regulated and available translation equivalents, which are essential when legal translation is performed within the frame of legal reality. Selected examples of use of these equivalents are given when discussing the results.