Translation of legal documentation requires a higher degree of experience and sophistication due to the nature of the work. Errors in legal translation do not merely cause confusion as a poorly translated literary work would; these errors can create misunderstandings that result in improperly executed contracts or have severe consequences in court proceedings.
One such challenge in translating legal documentation is the diversity of legal systems and terms from one country to the next. What is a commonly understood term within one country or culture may have no equivalent understanding or term in another language. This is known as “legal equivalence.”
Within the concept of legal equivalence, a measure of the similarity or disparity of the legal systems and terms of two languages is referred to as functional equivalence. One expert in legal translation theories from the University of Rijeka, Croatio, Susan Šarčević (“Legal Translation and Translation Theory: A Receiver-oriented Approach”, 2005), proposed three levels of functional equivalency: near-equivalence, partial equivalence, and non-equivalence. As their names imply, the most challenging for translators in non-equivalence.
Non-equivalence requires a much more sophisticated degree of knowledge and experience for a proper legal translation—far greater than just having fluency in the two languages at hand. When non-equivalence is at play, the translator must have a deep understanding of the legal systems of both countries and cultures to accurately describe the correct legal meaning of the terms from the original country’s document into an accurately translated version so that the representatives of the second language fully understand the true meaning of the terms.
Legal Equivalence Challenge Example
Valentina V. Stepanova from the Department of Foreign Languages Law Institute in Moscow describes one example of non-equivalence that presents a challenge in translating English-Russian documentation: the common English legal term, “nuisance.” In English, nuisance can refer to either a private or public offense and includes any human activity harmful to the health of another person, is indecent or offensive to the senses, or interferes with another person’s reasonable use and enjoyment of his or her property. In the United States, specific words to describe nuisances include indecency, pollution, noise, and contagious disease. In Russian, no equivalent term to the way English speakers use the term, “nuisance,” exists. Instead, one Russian term, общественного порядка, is often used as a translation for “public nuisance” although it more accurately means “public disturbance.” Legal teams are challenged to translate terms that relate to both public and private aspects of this tort into the Russian language.
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