Legal translation refers to the the translation of texts within the legal sphere. It entails conveying complex legal information in an accurate manner. Legal translation is therefore hailed as one of the most challenging fields of study, requiring the inventiveness of literary translation with the terminological precision of technical translation. Problems in legal translation, may crop up due to the specificity of legal language and the system-bound nature of legal terminology.



It may also arise because of differences between the common law and civil law systems. The job of translating a legal text into a foreign language is, therefore, littered with a series of obstacles. A good translator of legal texts needs to master legal jargons and should be able to express it in a few words.

The recent spate in international trade in the post globalisation period has boosted the demand for legal translation services. Having sound knowledge of the country's legal system civil law is a prerequisite for getting good legal translations done. To cater to the needs of the clients, there are many legal translators who are suitably qualified to translate legal documents. Efficient legal translators provide the much-needed solution when mounting a case or when buying a real estate.

Problems in legal translation

As the improper translation of a passage may lead to lawsuits and also may incur a huge loss of money, only professional translators specialising in legal translation are equipped enough to translate legal documents. Translators of legal texts often consult bilingual law dictionaries. Most forms of legal writing require clearly defined rights and duties for individuals. It is very important to ensure precise correspondence of these rights and duties between the source text and the translated version.

Legal translators must be therefore competent in at least three key areas:

Comparative Law - This requires having a basic knowledge of the legal systems of both the source and target languages.

Specific Terminology - This requires one to be familiar with the specific terminology of the particular legal field(s) dealt with in the source and the target text.

Legal writing style - This requires one to be competent in the specific legal writing style of the target language.

In the legal field, where terms are grounded in country-specific legal systems whose knowledge basis is defined in national legislation a legal term may show a certain degree of asymmetry between national systems, which inevitably leads to a major translation problem.

The following field of terminologies are frequently used in legal translation:

- International law

- Contract Law

- Maritime Law

- Tax Law

- Property Law

- Insurance Law

- Criminal Law

- Corporations Law

A legal translator's main job therefore is to produce a functional text. But, at the same time, a translator needs to be truly creative in text production and must be regarded as an expert wielder of words. Each legal system has got its own unique vocabulary. It is therefore a translator's job to search for terms that often do not fully correspond to the meaning of the word in the source language. Nevertheless, using the appropriate word depends a lot on the translator's technical knowledge.