scholarly journals A Few Remarks on Legal Translation and Intercultural Encounters

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 265-281
Author(s):  
Iwona Witczak-Plisiecka
Keyword(s):  
Intercultural Communication ◽  
Legal Language ◽  
Natural Languages ◽  
Legal Translation ◽  
Intercultural Encounters ◽  
The Law

The text offers comments on legal translation and its special nature. It is argued that legal translation is much different from other types of specialised translations. Unlike the language of engineering or medicine, legal language does not only refer to the related specialised practice, i.e. the law, but constitutes legal reality, being at the same time an instrument with which legal disputes are resolved. In the context of translation, legal language is particularly challenging as the process of finding equivalence is not restricted to interlinguistic level, but invites both intralinguistic and intersemiotic considerations. Moving not only between different natural languages, but also between different legal cultures, legal translators have to face problems that can often be naturally found in intercultural communication.

From Hard-Copy to Digital Law via “Illustrated Courtrooms”: Visualising the History of Legal English

Pólemos ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Matteo Nicolini
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Body Politic ◽  
The Body ◽  
Hard Copy ◽  
Legal Language ◽  
History Of ◽  
Judicial Proceedings ◽  
Three Stages ◽  
The Law ◽  
Digital Law

Abstract This essay addresses different patterns of the visualisation of the law. It examines how scholars attempt to depict, represent, and perform the law and its founding authority. It also focuses on the pragmatics of legal language: written and spoken standard legal English are pragmatically enriched within contexts where the law is interpreted, uttered, or performed. The linguistic notion of “context” discloses the interrelations between the agendas of law and power and reveals how the law conveys its content to the body politic as its ultimate addressee. It then proposes a renewed concept of legal linguistics. In order to determine the different ideologies underpinning the evolution of English legal language, as well as its prototypical forms of the visualisation of the law, three stages in the history of the English language will be examined: Late Middle English, Early Modern English, and Contemporary English. Each of these stages will be likened to the different parts of judicial proceedings. This will allow us to examine how English legal language has been used in a specific context, the trial, where the law is both uttered and performed.

scholarly journals A simplification of the Consumer Rights Act. Plain legal language and legal language

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 45-71
Author(s):  
Natalia Zych
Keyword(s):  
Effective Communication ◽  
Legal Language ◽  
Consumer Rights ◽  
Legal Texts ◽  
Average Reader ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Cost

The article examines the idea of plain legal language as a standard in creating comprehensible and effective communication in legislative acts. It features plain legal language techniques and tools used to tackle the visual and linguistic layer of legal texts. Selected techniques were implemented to experimentally modify the Polish Consumer Rights Act of 30 May 2014. The document, transformed in the spirit of plain legal language, was then submitted for assessment to lawyers as well as individuals with no legal background. The article features the results of the experiment as well as conclusions which make it possible to say whether the “simplified” act is more comprehensible to an average reader, and to assess the cost of the changes introduced in the original provisions of the law.

scholarly journals Characteristics of Slovak Culture in the Context of Bilateral Austrian-Slovak Relations

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 81-101
Author(s):  
Michaela Čiefová
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Differences ◽  
Intercultural Communication ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
Value Added ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Geographical Proximity ◽  
Online Questionnaire ◽  
Bilateral Relations ◽  
Intercultural Encounters ◽  
The One

Abstract Objective: The main intention of the present paper is, on the one hand, to provide a summary of the characteristics of Slovak culture by applying chosen theories and models. On the other hand, we attempt to underline the significance of bilateral Austro-Slovak relations in relation to the economy or migration tendencies. We assume that, based on geographical proximity and the above stated bilateral relations, intercultural encounters are relatively frequent as well. Therefore, certain perception of Slovaks from the Austrian point of view is likely to exist. Methodology: Our work is based on relevant scientific sources, as well as on our own empirical research reposing in the analysis of an online questionnaire. Findings: Overall, findings of our empirical research may be considered rather positive, as no negative or hostile responses concerning Slovak culture were reported. Furthermore, none of the participants experienced a conflict with a Slovak counterpart that could clearly be ascribed to cultural differences. Value Added: We believe that the conclusions presented in this paper might be helpful not only for managers operating on the international level or businessmen intending to do business with their Slovak partners, for scholars engaged in similar topics but also for anyone interested in intercultural communication and cultural differences.

scholarly journals On Legal English Translation from the Perspective of Legal Linguistics

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 6
Author(s):  
Weifeng Hu
Keyword(s):  
English Translation ◽  
Transnational Corporations ◽  
International Exchange ◽  
Legal Language ◽  
Translation Process ◽  
Legal Translation ◽  
Rights And Interests ◽  
Transnational Trade

With the deepening trend of globalization and the development of economy and society, the demand for international exchange talents is increasing. Especially with the increasing number of transnational corporations, almost every company should have professional legal translation employees to guarantee their legitimacy of transnational trade and effectively prevent the infringement of related rights and interests. Therefore, to improve the quality in transnational translation business and optimize legal English translation skills from the perspective of legal language can not only offer a reference for the industry, but also provide evidence for the problems arising from the actual legal translation process. Based on the perspective of legal linguistics, this paper tries to puts forward appropriate legal English translation measures mainly by analyzing the skills of legal English translation, with a view to providing some references for relevant scholars.

scholarly journals A Judge at the Crossroads of Cultures: Shi Tianlin

2018 ◽  
Vol 71 (4) ◽  
pp. 1137-1151
Author(s):  
Florence Hodous
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Intercultural Communication ◽  
The West ◽  
Chinese Values ◽  
The Law ◽  
Mongol Empire ◽  
The Prestige ◽  
The Way

Abstract Shi Tianlin is one of only two known officials who was appointed to act as judge both in the West and the East of the Mongol Empire, during the period of the united empire when officials were often appointed cross-regionally. Coming from near today’s Beijing, he came to prominence for his knowledge of languages, and was granted a Mongol name. He was a judge in a Western campaign, probably that of Batu against the Qipchaqs and Russians. Later, he was sent by Möngke Khan to Qaidu in Central Asia, and detained there for 28 years, before returning to Yuan China. Despite his long absence from China and though his activity as judge was very short (he declined to be re-appointed as judge when he arrived back in China), the prestige of the appointment stuck, and his son and grandson were both judges in China. The shendaobei, or Spirit-Way Inscription, of Shi Tianlin is particularly interesting for the way in which it explains Mongol concepts in Chinese terms. One of these is the jasagh (held to be the law code of Chinggis Khan), which is equated with Chinese falü (statute or law code). Rather than explaining its contents however, the inscription talks about the importance of following “the jasagh of Confucius”, namely the Lunyu or Analects of Confucius. The inscription – and presumably Shi Tianlin during his lifetime – thus uses a widely-known Mongol concept to promote Chinese values, showing the complexities of intercultural communication and exchange during the Mongol era.

scholarly journals Laws of Language and Legal Language: A Study of Legal Language in Some Indonesian Regulations

Humaniora ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 97
Author(s):  
Shidarta Shidarta
Keyword(s):  
Legal Reasoning ◽  
The Other ◽  
Legal Language ◽  
The Public ◽  
Legislative Power ◽  
Legal Science ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The Law ◽  
Political Decisions

Legal language must follow the laws of language (grammar) that widely known and commonly used by the public, including groups of the scientist. Legal language on the other hand also recognizes specific terminologies. These terminologies were introduced by jurists or by legislative power holders. Accordingly, legal language became the product of legal doctrines or political decisions. The problems arose when a number of compositions and legal terms turned out to be elusive, convoluted, and ambiguous due to the pattern of writing that was once done and because of certain considerations. This article proposed reviewing the factors that result in problems. The author presented a solution to observe using hermeneutic methods of law and legal reasoning. The author argued that the text of the law was not neutral since it was trapped not only by the laws of language but also by the perspective of the interpreters as they believed such a perspective was based on the guidance of legal science. By using legal hermeneutics can be checked the depth of the meaning of the law; while over the legal reasoning can be seen its rationale according to legal science.

scholarly journals Intralingual Conflicts of the Legal Language

2021 ◽  
pp. 035-040
Author(s):  
A. N. Shepelyov
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Context ◽  
Academic Discipline ◽  
Individual Case ◽  
Legal Language ◽  
Conflict Situations ◽  
Linguistic System ◽  
The Law ◽  
Special Approach ◽  
Further Development

In the article, the author studies the problem of interaction between the legal language and other professional languages, using the language of psychiatry as an example. In this context particular attention is paid to the lawyer’s skills to manage conflict situations that appear between the legal and other languages. The courtroom, in particular, presents a “conflict place”. The author poses a question: what happens when it is required of an expert-psychiatrist to give an opinion on criminal sanity of the accused? While modeling the possible further development, it becomes obvious, that there is a huge gap between the language of psychiatry and the legal language, which appears because of the contradictions between the natures of these two fields. In each mental and linguistic system, whether an academic discipline, a professional or informal language, there exist its own set of terms, its own structure, goals, social and cultural context. The author points out that the lawyer and the psychiatrist constantly deal with two conflicts: the conflict between their professional language and the reality, and the conflict between the psychiatry and the law as such. The article notes that the nature of such contradictions requires a special approach to each individual case and combination of the art of legal language and other languages.

scholarly journals Orpheus and the Law: The Story of Myrrha in Ovid’s Metamorphoses

2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ioannis Ziogas
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Attraction ◽  
Casual Sex ◽  
Legal Language ◽  
Founding Father ◽  
Political Dimension ◽  
The Law ◽  
Ars Poetica

According to Horace, Orpheus and Amphion were the first legislators. They forbade casual sex, gave rights to spouses, and inscribed laws on wood (Ars Poetica 396-401). Orpheus, who is both the model of the devoted husband and the founding father of pederasty, simultaneously establishes and challenges the institution of marriage. His myth acquires a deeply political dimension at Rome after the emperor Augustus introduced laws that encouraged marriage and criminalised adultery. In the Metamorphoses, Orpheus attempts to regulate desire and is subsequently executed by married or marriageable women. He is a figure of Ovid, the poet who spelled out the constitution of the rules of conduct within the domains of sexual attraction in his Art of Love and was punished for subverting the institution of marriage. This article focuses on Orpheus’ story of Myrrha in Ovid’s Metamorphoses and reads the tale against the background of Augustus’ marriage and adultery laws. The myth of Myrrha is rife with legal language and courtroom rhetoric that provocatively conflate incest with marriage.

scholarly journals Discurso e sociedade: a democratização do acesso ao direito/justiça pela simplificação da linguagem jurídica (Discourse and society: the democratization of access to the law/justice by the simplification of the legal language)

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 81
Author(s):  
Antonio Escandiel de Souza ◽  
Carla Rosane Da Silva Tavares Alves ◽  
Andrea Moser Keitel ◽  
Ana Luísa Moser Keitel
Keyword(s):  
Legal Language ◽  
The Law

Numa perspectiva interdisciplinar, tendo em vista a abordagem que envolve a ciência da linguagem e do Direito, este artigo discute resultados de um estudo sobre a simplificação da linguagem jurídica como forma de democratizar o acesso à Justiça, sob a visão dos profissionais do contexto jurídico de Cruz Alta – RS. O estudo justifica-se pelo fato de que há uma grande dificuldade por parte da sociedade na compreensão de expressões jurídicas, o que dificulta o acesso à Justiça. Os dados evidenciam um avanço na aceitação e no exercício da simplificação da linguagem jurídica, antes praticamente inaceitável pelos operadores do direito.PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Discurso. Simplificação. Democratização. Justiça. Poder.

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