What Makes Legal Translation Different
Legal documents often use legal terms and language that may not be familiar to non-lawyers. For this reason, legal translations require special attention. The only way to ensure the correct translation is to hire a professional legal translator with specialized knowledge in the field. Another difference is in style and tone. Legal translators must ensure that translations are used in a good passive voice for the legal field of a foreign country. While the legal system obviously has a lot to do with the criminal system, there are other uses for legal translations. Much of the work associated with legal translation services focuses on civil cases, proof of identity, contracts, etc. Legal documents can be divided into normative and descriptive texts, as well as hybrid texts, which contain both functions. The target text has legal effects. The function of a document does not depend on its intrinsic nature, but on the communicative situation.
Legal translation is the field of translation that converts legal documents and materials from one language to another, respecting the original meaning. This type of translation consists of a procedure that takes into account the legal context. Among the various documents that can be translated in the context of law are the following: Literary translation is an area where the focus is much more on the flow and feel of a text. This often means that the text is contained in an active voice and not in the passive voice of legal translations. Although they can be of similar complexity, legal translations and law-based academic writings have much more specialized terminology and need to be presented in a certain way. If you`re dealing with legal translations, you`ve probably come across the term certified legal translation. Certified translation means that the translation must be guaranteed as a correct and truthful translation of the original document. This is especially important when translating legal documents, as even a small change can have major legal consequences. According to Breuer, the skills a legal translator should possess are: Professional legal translation services are always needed when you need to translate official documents such as birth and marriage certificates, notarial deeds, death certificates, contracts, financial statements, or other important documents containing sensitive data.
These difficulties are exacerbated when the target language has a different syntactic basis. For example, legal English is usually written in a passive voice, using complex structures and prepositional sentences that, when translated into a language that primarily uses the active voice, can cause confusion and even change the definition of the legal text when translated literally. Some people still wonder what legal translations are – a bit like legal language, everything is Greek to them! Want to know more? Keep reading today`s article to learn about the different types of legal translations and the language used in such projects. Professional translation companies will have more than just a pair of eyes checking translations. At TranslateDay, each translation is checked twice by two different translators who specialize in the type of translation you choose. Read our FAQ to learn more about how we work for you. For this purpose, the translation of legal documents must have a certain qualification. Legal translations are carried out by experienced translators who have extensive professional experience.
Almost all documents handled by a legal translator are legally binding or have a legal requirement for accuracy. This means that the translated document may be completely invalid if there are errors. These documents often need to be notarized to ensure there are no inaccuracies or fraud attempts – a fake birth certificate, marriage certificate, or other document is a common way for people to enter other countries, so notarizing these translations helps prevent this. In addition to the complexity of legal translation, there is unique terminology, combined with cultural factors and linguistic differences. Legal translation is not just about replacing one word with another. The translator must translate the legal terms into another language. Due to different legal terms and traditions, the translator must specify very precisely which language is to be used in the target jurisdiction. Inaccurate legal translations can have catastrophic effects on the outcome of any case. Choosing poor quality services can have financial, reputational or even criminal consequences. By choosing a professional translation agency, law firms can avoid possible disagreements and penalties. It`s worth investing in specialized services to ensure your documentation is properly organized and translated. For certain purposes such as adoption proceedings, court orders, court orders or property documents, a translated document must be signed before a notary in order to be fully verified and legalized.
For other purposes, a certified document may suffice, such as a birth certificate for immigration purposes or a college or university certificate. The purpose of the translation must also be taken into account. Depending on the requirements you may need to certify a document, a certified document may not be sufficient. Notarized documents, also known as official translation or stamped translation, are documents signed by a translator before a notary, these documents are simultaneously notarized and notarized. There is a lot of terminology that goes into legal translations. To someone new to the subject, many of the words surrounding legal translations may seem relatively similar. But the truth is that they are very different, although related, terms. 3) Legal translation: is the translation of texts in the field of law. Since law is a culturally dependent field, legal translation work and its products are not necessarily linguistically transparent.
Law is an amalgam of different systems that have developed separately and are generally confined to national and linguistic boundaries (Groffier 1990:314). Legal translators need to find equivalents for terms related to culture, especially those related to concepts, procedures, institutions and personnel. However, European and international law is developing enormously, which suggests that the law is gradually becoming standardised. Read our article When and how to use notarized or notarized translations if you want to learn more about certified translations of legal documents and notarized legal documents. When someone hires a translator or translation agency for a legal translation process, it is extremely important to be able to count on a reliable result. If the translation is not accurate enough, there may be legal consequences. A poorly translated document can have a direct impact on people`s rights. Professional translations of legal documents can only be carried out by subject matter specialists/experts (SMEs) with in-depth knowledge of the laws of the source and target countries/languages in order to avoid incorrect translations. The main difference between regular and legal translations is the type of content they contain.
While regular translations can be made from any written document, legal translations can only be made from specific texts that contain a specific language. Translation automation is not recommended due to the complexity of the two jurisdictions involved. Direct translations are not possible as they may not make sense to the target reader. The legal translator must ensure that the titles, justification and technical terms are legally valid. Another notable aspect of legal translation is their complex and cumbersome process. There is even a separate article showing the 6 steps of translating legal documents that demonstrate this complexity. This, in turn, makes legal translations extremely difficult. Here are some aspects that legal translators need to consider. They should all be followed as much as possible at all times.
“Legal language”, the formal and technical language of legal documents, is a type of language within a language, which is why legal translators must be fluent in four languages: the original language of the document, the target language and the legalese of each. When translating from one legal system to another, the similarity between the two legal systems has a greater influence on the difficulty of translation than the relationship between languages. Translators must be able to cope with the challenges caused by the incongruity of defining a word once translated. Many legal expressions in the source language do not have an exact equivalent in the target language, so a literal translation is not sufficient. In these cases, translators are often forced to use a conceptual equivalent to articulate the legal term or concept. If necessary, in addition to paraphrasing the concept, translators should include the original legal term in its source language to highlight the legal term.