The Role of Legal Translation in Legal Harmonization

It can be readily argued that the matter of legal translation is paramount in the process of legal harmonization in the European Union (EU). Although academic literature in recent years has paid increasing attention to the translation processes involved in drafting EU legislation, until now there has been no one source that offers an in-depth multidisciplinary study of this vital question: how can legal translation be made to contribute to legal harmonization? The purpose of this book is to fill this lacuna. Nine distinguished contributors, all leading experts and scholars in multilingual EU law making, legal translation studies, comparative law and European (private) law, explore and analyse the legal translation praxis within EU legislative institutions, discuss approaches to legal translation appropriate for the purpose of legal harmonization, and examine both the potential and limitations of legal translation in the context of the development of a single but multilingual EU legal language. Among the many issues that arise for in-depth analysis in the course of the discussion are the following: - defining `drafting quality'; - translating legal concepts belonging to specific legal systems; - EU policies on harmonization of national contract laws; - legal uniformity vs. uniformity of interpretation and application; - the effect of full harmonization clauses; - proportion between general language vocabulary and legal terminology; and - role of English in the EU and the aims of the EU Institutions. The book concludes with a synthesis of the findings and recommendations of the various contributions. Most of the chapters were originally presented at a conference organized in January 2011 by the Amsterdam Circle for Law & Language (ACLL) and the Centre for the Study of European Contract Law (CSECL). Explicating both the analytical basis for examining the objectives and achievements of legal translation in the EU and the task faced by the legal translators and lawyer-linguists involved in drafting the various language versions of EU legislation, this book clearly explains why translation needs to bridge, on one side, the advancement and completion of EU's interna) market and, on the other side, the protection and promotion of language diversity and equality in Europe. It will be welcomed by scholars, practitioners and students engaged in legal translation, comparative legal research, EU law or legal theory.