“Law hath dominion over all things, over universal mind and matter; for there are reciprocities of rights, which no creature can gainsay”; Amidst law-bashing quotes from all over the world, English poet Martin Tupper has chosen to focus on the importance of laws and beautifully justified their existence in society. Legal Translation is a highly specialized, dynamic, exciting and lucrative field, outlined by the following challenges:
1. Legal systems are highly culture-specific; hence the translated text must retain the original content as well as comply with the norms of the target culture.
2. The single biggest challenge in legal translation comprises of the lexical gaps between the legal terms and terminologies in two different languages. Finding the right substitutes to fill these lacunae is not easy.
3. The legal structure of any country is a huge amalgamation of Civil law, Criminal Law, Corporate Law, Property and Tax Law etc and mastery over even one area is quite a task!
4. The need for research arises at several junctures, thereby necessitating a professional legal translator to possess linguistic expertise in both languages, sound knowledge of legal frameworks, legal terminology and cultural implications in both the countries as well as excellent research and analytical skills. Talk about heights of versatility!
5. There are specific translation techniques unique to specific legal documents. Therefore the translation of a legal patent would be very different from that of a statute, and so on.
6. “False Friends” in the source and target text refer to words that sound or look similar but are completely different in the corresponding languages. Translators need to be wary of such terms.
7. Legal documents that are commonly translated include court documents, summons, complaints, judicial proceedings, licenses, patents, certificates, contracts, leases, agreements as well as litigation documents. The sheer variety of documents in itself is a challenge.
8. Deadlines are usually short and even minute errors can have sizeable legal implications.
To overcome these challenges, it is always advisable for legal translators to specialize in particular areas so that they are effectively able to cover all the subtleties of their domain of specialization. Constantly updating and utilizing Translation Memories is a must, and so is the need for keeping oneself abreast of the latest changes in the legal frameworks and processes. One must always undertake assignments with clarity on the desired format of the translated text, whether the document requires sworn translation or certified translation (both are different from each other; while the former has an official stamp on it, the latter has an attached document to certify its validity) and remain in touch with the client for even minute queries to avoid any last minute disasters. If you are offered a project that is beyond your area of expertise and you feel you cannot do complete justice to it, it is always better to refuse rather than churning out a mistranslated version. More than anything else, the bottom line for effective legal translation is your sincerity, which is reflected outright in all that you execute.
