Stop press:
Making sense of adversarial interpreting – a seminarContinue Reading..
Eva Angelopoulou provides her overview of events for legal translators and interpreters held earlier this year by EULITA:Continue Reading..
On Thursday, 21 September, the University of Birmingham will host a seminar on ” Law, translation and migration: an enlightening relationship”. The event is free but requires pre-registration. The announcement about the event and the full programme are reproduced below:
“Challenges of legal translation have existed for a long time in international law and international relations. However, the intense process of globalization since the latter half of the 20th century has led to a rapid increase of international treaties and agreements, regional governance, international organizations, NGOs and courts as well as growing reliance on international arbitration.
Much of this globalized legal work is performed through translation. In spite of its long history and recent proliferation, legal translation remains underexplored, particularly from a socio-legal perspective. In fact, research on the intersection of law and translation has tended to concentrate on a rather limited agenda with broader issues being neglected. Therefore, migration is an appropriate and innovative lens to pursue this broader investigation and to tackle the following key issues: what are the various effects of globalisation on this intersection? What is the impact of legal translation on the acceptance of concepts and ideas into other (legal) cultures? What are the effects of the ‘translated’ word on the perception of the very phenomena it portrays?
This seminar will not only further our understanding of the intersection of law and translation, but it will advance knowledge and analysis on migration, an issue central to our times. By addressing the intersection of law and translation in this way, it will reveal novel questions, effects or links to migration, thus advancing the intellectual agenda of the socio-legal community.”
Programme
Morning
Workshop 1 – Language and migration – A complex relationship
Professor Ann-Marie Fortier – University of Lancaster (Department of sociology):
‘On (not) speaking English: colonial legacies in language requirements for British citizenship’
Professor Eleanor Spaventa – University of Durham (School of Law):
“Language and the internal market”
Professor François Grin – Université de Genève (Faculty of translation and interpreting)
“Language, mobility and inclusion in the EU: the MIME project”
Workshop 2 – Portrayal of the nexus translation and migration
Professor Lucja Biel – University of Warsaw (Faculty of applied linguistics):
‘Translation and the law: A case study of a corpus of (legal) translation on migration’
Professor Loredana Polezzi – University of Cardiff (School of Modern Languages):
‘The portrayal in contemporary literary texts of the relationship between migration, translation and the law”
Afternoon:
Workshop 3 – ‘Translating migration’ in practice
Professor Angela Creese & Professor Adrian Blackledge – University of Birmingham (School of Education):
‘Translation in everyday practice”
Dr Frances Rock – University of Cardiff (School of English, communication and philosophy)
“Just because she’s a solicitor that doesn’t make her any better than you”: Law, translation and migration in confronting disadvantage through enlightened relationships in legal advice”
Dr Elpida Loupaki – Aristotle University of Thessalonika (Department of French studies and literature):
‘Translating migration – beyond terminology’
Piotr Wegorowski – University of Cardiff (School of English, communication and philosophy)
“Translating institutional procedures: the case of community policing”
source: http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/schools/law/events/2017/law-translation-migration.aspx
![Billis, Emmanouil (ed.): The Greek Penal Code. English translation by Vasiliki Chalkiadaki and Emmanouil Billis. Introduction by Emmanouil Billis. Berlin, Duncker & Humblot 2017, 256 p. [ISBN 978-3-86113-794-8 (Max-Planck-Institut), ISBN 978-3-428-15230-8 (Duncker & Humblot)].](https://i1.wp.com/jurtrans.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/0200x0300.jpg?resize=150%2C230)
The Greek Penal Code
This new work “includes a systematic introduction to the basic characteristics and fundamental principles of criminal law and the Penal Code of Greece. As such, it is an indispensable resource for legal professionals, comparatists, and international scholars interested in the Greek criminal justice system”.
I would also add ‘legal translators’ to that list. As I pointed out in a recent blogpost, an essential tool for any professional legal translator is a translation of the key codes into his/her working languages. This can solve many terminological issues and promote consistency, while also aiding comprehension by the target audience.
The new book is the result of a project entitled “Translation of the Greek Penal Code into English”, which was run at the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law. The contents of the book can be viewed here.
Interestingly, this is not the first time that the Greek Penal Code has been translated into English. The Code was previously translated in 1973 by N. Lolis, prefaced by an introduction to Greek criminal law by Giorgios Mangakis, and published as part of the American Series of Foreign Penal Codes. Times move on though. As the publisher’s blurb for the new book by Billis points out, criminal law is an area that evolves and develops over time and, “the individual definitions of criminal offences, [have] been widely amended several times. Efforts have always been made to adapt the law to modern socio-ethical, political, economic, and international developments”. So the new translation is a welcome addition to the tools at the legal translator’s disposal.
Tools of the legal translator’s trade, a new blog by me published today on the IALS Legal Translation hub looking at the various tools legal translators use in their profession. Click here to read more:
A FEW THOUGHTS ON QUALITY IN LEGAL TRANSLATION
Poor or inadequate legal translations can have dire consequences on the legal, financial and personal relations of individuals, companies and legal entities, lead to doubts regarding the rights and obligations of the parties and can often result in great financial losses. The expectations of quality in this field are high, certainly higher than in other translation fields, for the sake of legal certainty and for the avoidance of these adverse consequences.Continue Reading..
Straight off the press, a great new article on “What exactly is legal translation?” by Dr. Juliette Scott has just been published on the IALS/IMLR Legal Translation Hub looking at “what it involves, where it happens, why professionals are needed, how to get into the profession, and what the future holds”.
Click here to read the article.
Following on from the previous post about upcoming conferences relevant to legal translation, language and law, a few more conferences on the topic have been drawn to my attention by colleagues. Many thanks!
So adding these 2, that makes a total of 7 more conferences on legal translation this year.Continue Reading..
Hard on the heels of the very interesting event “Legal translation to the next level” held on 4 February here in London come a series of other events and conferences all relating to the topic. The tagline for the London conference was that legal translators should ‘roar to the world’ about their existence. Another 5 conferences happening this year will certainly help get the message out there about what legal translators do and the important role they play. So here’s a quick round-up of forthcoming legal translation events:Continue Reading..
Thankfully more and more legal translation events are being organised, as yesterday’s post pointed out.
In fact next week there are two legal translation events coming up which look to be interesting:
What exactly is legal translation?
Next week (8/12/2016) IALS/SOAS are jointly hosting a seminar entitled ‘What exactly is legal translation?’ presented by Dr. Juliette Scott of wordstodeeds fame and a key advocate of the importance of professionalising legal translation and improving quality in the sector. The seminar will be looking at “what [legal translation] is, where it happens and the risks involved”.
This legal translation event will take place in central London and admission is free, though you do need to book in advance.
5th annual Lawyer-Linguists virtual event
Next Thursday (8/12) also happens to be the date of the 5th annual Lawyer-Linguists virtual event, an online legal translation event aimed at those utilising their professional qualifications in law and translation to provide legal translation and interpreting services. According to the event’s website some of the topics to be discussed are:
- Pro Bono Opportunities for Lawyer-Linguists
- Working as a Lawyer-Linguist for the European Court of Justice (Freelancers and In-House)
- The Lawyer-Linguist as CEO
- Maintaining a Law Practice as a Lawyer-Linguist
- The Lawyer-Linguist as Interpreter
- Foreign Language Document Review: The State of the Industry
- Training for Lawyer-Linguists
Registration for the event is free.
Words to Deeds Conference 2017: Legal translation to the next level
February 2017 also sees the Words to Deeds Conference 2017: Legal translation to the next level, which will be hosted in central London.
As a complement to the conference itself, there will also be a series of pre- and post-conference events by leading practitioners and academics in the field of legal translation, covering corpus linguistics and its relationship to legal translation, bijuralism and bilingual drafting, and legal translation of EU texts. More information about this conference and the side events can be found on the Words to Deeds blog and conference website.
