Via advobLAWg, another German lawyer’s weblog (by Michael Heng), the Chamber of Industry and Commerce at Frankfurt has materials (in German) on the proposed reform of the law of unfair competition. What is particularly interesting is a PDF file containing a contrastive synopsis of old and draft new law, together with what is known as the ‘professors’ draft’. There is also an explanatory introduction to this. Continue reading →

Via Patterico’s Pontifications, a man in Santa Cruz succeeded in getting damages at small claims court against American Airlines when he traced the plane that had dropped two large lumps what is euphemistically called blue ice (why blue?) onto the skylight of his boat. Continue reading →

This follows on from Clarity, but I am putting it in a separate entry for once.

The EU translation service has an initiative called Fight the Fog, trying to encourage the writing of comprehensible documents. I must admit that although I’ve enjoyed listening to Emma Wagner talking about this, I have never found any direct help from it for myself. They do have a very nice list called Le mot juste, of French words often mistranslated in EU usage. Continue reading →

This follows on from Clarity, but I am putting it in a separate entry for once.

The EU translation service has an initiative called Fight the Fog, trying to encourage the writing of comprehensible documents. I must admit that although I’ve enjoyed listening to Emma Wagner talking about this, I have never found any direct help from it for myself. They do have a very nice list called Le mot juste, of French words often mistranslated in EU usage. Continue reading →

I recently received the new edition of Clarity, on plain language in legal English, by email and post, but I don’t really have time to read it. The website gives more information. Some articles are available there (most of them are by Mark Adler, who originated Clarity).

The most interesting thing for translators, as in plain drafting books (and all drafting books nowadays), is the information about unplain legal English. From an article there called Better drafting (a will extract), here is the beginning of the original, taken from a 1992 book of precedents:

bq. (1) 1 I bequeath 2 to the vicar and churchwarden 3 of the parish church of ….. 4 , 5 and their successors the sum of 6 £….. upon 7 trust 8 to invest the same 9 and during the period of twenty-one years from 10 my death (which period 11 shall 12 be the perpetuity period 13 applicable to this gift)

This is followed by 41 explanatory notes and a simpler version, of which this is the beginning:

bq. I give £…. to the parish church of ….. on trust to use the income:
(A) For the first 21 years after my death:

These articles are good reading for anyone translating English wills into German. Translators are dealing with this kind of language all the time. Continue reading →

I recently received the new edition of Clarity, on plain language in legal English, by email and post, but I don’t really have time to read it. The website gives more information. Some articles are available there (most of them are by Mark Adler, who originated Clarity).

The most interesting thing for translators, as in plain drafting books (and all drafting books nowadays), is the information about unplain legal English. From an article there called Better drafting (a will extract), here is the beginning of the original, taken from a 1992 book of precedents:

bq. (1) 1 I bequeath 2 to the vicar and churchwarden 3 of the parish church of ….. 4 , 5 and their successors the sum of 6 £….. upon 7 trust 8 to invest the same 9 and during the period of twenty-one years from 10 my death (which period 11 shall 12 be the perpetuity period 13 applicable to this gift)

This is followed by 41 explanatory notes and a simpler version, of which this is the beginning:

bq. I give £…. to the parish church of ….. on trust to use the income:
(A) For the first 21 years after my death:

These articles are good reading for anyone translating English wills into German. Translators are dealing with this kind of language all the time. Continue reading →