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Camille Roger ABOLOU (Bouaké, Côte d'Ivoire)Juridical discourse in sub-Saharan Africa. Terminology and translation in legal matters2011, Vol. XVI-1, pp. 17-31
Initially, work on translation concentrated on exploiting the capacity of African languages to express modernity. Later research in translation in sub-Saharan Africa has concentrated on legal ethnography, working on ontological systems, legal texts within which a multiplicity of sources of law are intermingled, in particular customary law, civil law and common law. These justice systems are superimposed and intertwined, giving rise to a legal disorder. The post-colonial African countries have the major challenge, apart from the one-way communication which characterises them, with what can be called interjuridicity, a zone of interference where jurisigns (borrowings and legal calques) appear. The concept of interjuridicity sheds light on the problems of legal translation in sub-Saharan Africa which can be solved by applying various heuristic approaches.
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Mathieu DEVINAT (Sherbrooke, Canada)Bijuridism and bilingualism in Canada: ideals under tension2011, Vol. XVI-1, pp. 33-50
Since its creation in 1867, Canada is founded on a political compromise between two founding nations that gave an equal status to distinct legal traditions both expressed in two official languages. In order to fulfill these ideals, however, Canadian jurists must assimilate two legal cultures and languages, an expertise far from reach for everyday citizens, and probably even from a majority of jurists themselves! This paper aims to present in a critical manner the legal discourse surrounding the implementation of bilingualism and bijuridism in Canadian law. In our opinion, the Canadian example highlights the methodological and terminological challenges related to the recognition of two languages and legal traditions within the same legal order.
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Philippe GRÉCIANO (Grenoble)Translation and its problems in the trials of the Red Khmers2011, Vol. XVI-1, pp. 119-126
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Alain GUILLAUME (Université Quisqueya, Haïti)How law is expressed in creole or how to diminish the juridical differences in Haiti2011, Vol. XVI-1, pp. 77-91
Haitian society is characterized by a number of dichotomies which are manifested in law in the form of an unequal bilingualism and a particular form of bijuralism. The legal integration of the Nation implies that the law be expressed in creole and that customary standards should be taken into account in written law. These measures would enrich substantive law in Haiti, though complex to implement.
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Hendrik J. KOCKAERT (Lessius)A tool for managing terminology in juridical translation activities in Belgium; How it works and what it can do2011, Vol. XVI-1, pp. 93-104
The Department of Applied Language Studies of Lessius and the Research unit of quantitative and variational linguistics of the K.U. Leuven have been invited by the translation department of the Ministry of Justice to develop a Terminology Management System (TMS) of legal phraseology and terminology allowing translators to work with correct, coherent and expert-revised phraseologies and terminologies in the three national languages. This paper firstly investigates how terminology management has been carried out in the translation departments of the federal public services of justice in Belgium. Based on this survey, this paper proposes a TMS tool which is based on a new concept of phraseological terminology. To reach this goal, an extraction method of phraseological terminology based on some usage-based models of language will serve as a basis of a customised experimental analysis method which will allow us to design a road map capable of developing terminology, specifically engineered for the legal translation LSP.
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Simon TAYLOR (Paris-Diderot)The European Union and National Legal Languages: an Awkward Partnership?2011, Vol. XVI-1, pp. 105-118
The harmonisation of the laws of Member States in various areas of private law constitutes an important element of the European Union integration process. The principal legislative mechanism used to achieve this harmonisation is the directive. Effective harmonisation of national laws can only be achieved if the Community legislation is applied in the same way in the different national legal systems. Many of the challenges in ensuring a harmonised application of community legislation are connected to issues of legal language. Amongst other examples, this paper will use the European directive on product liability (la responsabilité du fait des produits défectueux) as an illustration of the various language issues raised and the solutions available to ensure an effective level of harmonisation. This will be done through a study of the English and French versions of the directive, and by considering the experience of the implementation of the provisions of the directive in French and English law.
Legal translation