Conceptual Adequacy in Legal Translation

Abstract

The aim of the present article is to provide an overview of the main difficulties encountered by legal translators, and work out some practical solutions so that the translator could provide an adequate translation in compliance with the norms of the target legal system. Legal translations raise very complex theoretical and practical problems and, therefore, an interdisciplinary comparative approach to the two legal systems and languages should be manifested by specialized translators. This study demonstrates that despite the common assumption that legal translations are literal, they may be translated differently depending on the context and aim of its translation. When translating a legal document, one is thus faced with the challenge of providing a translation that makes a legal as well as linguistic sense. Consequently, a translator can provide an accurate translation only if he/she has an understanding of the SL and the TL legal systems.