Session

Anyone working with more than one language in the field of law may face more than just linguistic differences. Each legal system has its own rules, legal concepts and knowledge structures that differ to a greater or lesser extent from those of other legal systems. There are conceptual and terminological differences even between legal systems that use the same official language, such as Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Sharing one and the same language does not necessarily mean sharing the same legal culture and language. For example, the same legal concept may be designated differently depending on the legal system. Vortritt (CH), Vorrang (A) and Vorfahrt (D, South Tyrol) all refer to the same situation, i.e. the right to drive first at road junctions. The same terms can also stand for different legal concepts. In Germany, for example, a Doktor is someone who has successfully completed a doctorate. However, in South Tyrol, a Doktor is anyone who has successfully completed a bachelor’s degree. Such differences can naturally lead to misunderstandings and communication difficulties.

For this reason, legal translation also means overcoming conceptual and system-related barriers. Comparative legal terminology work is a tried and tested method for uncovering similarities and differences between terms from different legal systems. This method is applied:

• at the interlingual level between legal systems that use different languages

• at the intralingual level between legal systems that use the same language (this allows to check whether two identical terms are also identical in terms of content)

This course is aimed at prospective and experienced translators who work or would like to work with legal texts of different types. It provides a theoretical grounding in applying comparative law to terminology and translation as well as practical tips, including useful tools and resources. Exercises and discussions serve to better understand theoretical aspects and put them into practice. The aim is to provide participants with a good methodological basis for finding and selecting the right equivalents when translating or interpreting legal texts. At the same time, we hope to increase the participants’ awareness of relevant differences between legal systems, including legal systems using the same official language.