I gather (from a translators’ mailing list) that the City University Legal Translation MA is to close. (Addition: the current full-time students and the second-year part-time students submitting their dissertations in October 2013 are to be the last intake). What a shame! I have seen some documents about its organization and it must have taken a great deal of planning. I was glad that I did not have to create a new legal translation course when I was in Erlangen – especially one with an interface between translation theory and legal translation! It seems a real waste of organization and knowledge. You can read a lot about the course at the above link, albeit now probably irrelevant.

City’s Legal Translation MA will allow you to acquire a specialisation in an area of translation for which there is an increasing demand.

The course provides an overview of the legal systems and terminology in England and Wales as well as those of the country of your other language.

It establishes a theoretical framework for legal translation and provides practice in translating key documents in a wide range of legal fields.

The curriculum was developed in consultation with the legal translation industry and is tailored to its needs.

Last year the part-time option was scrapped and the course reviewed, apparently with the result that it will be stopped altogether. I wonder what reasons will be given. Probably the part-time option was very attractive and closing that avenue was the beginning of the end.

A similar situation has arisen with the Imperial College Translation Studies Unit, which Imperial College feels does not fit into its programme – presumably with the argument that translation is an art. The course ought to be relocated, they say – but this seems tantamount to closing it.
Here’s a link to a petition against this http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/petition-against-the-transferral-or-closure-of-the-translation-studies-unit:

The Imperial College Management Board has informed us that the activities carried out by the Translation Studies Unit (TSU) are not considered core to the College strategy and that, if possible, the Unit should be transferred to another institution. If this solution proves not to be feasible, consideration will be given to closing the unit by the end of September 2013.

Here’s something about the TSU.