The Interpretation Act 1978 (originally 1889) defines various terms for most Acts in force in England and Wales, and to some extent Northern Ireland and Scotland too. I’ve put a copy (accuracy not guaranteed) online – it should be useful to legal translators both into and out of English with regard to Britain.

Download file

For example,

6. In any Act, unless the contrary intention appears,
a) words importing the masculine gender include the feminine;
b) words importing the feminine gender include the masculine;
c) words in the singular include the plural and words in the plural include the singular.

Schedule 1 contains a list of words and phrases.

Oath” and “affidavit” include affirmation and declaration, and “swear” includes affirm and declare.

I understand that affirm (swearing without a Bible or other religious book) is the equivalent of swearing. But what about declare? That refers, apparently, to a statutory declaration in lieu of an oath and other kinds of formal declarations required by some statutes. Some are required to be made before a particular person, for example a magistrate, and the person has to satisfy himself that the person before him is the declarant named in the declaration.

“Person” includes a body of persons corporate or unincorporate. [1889]

I learnt recently that Person in the German Civil Code also includes not only natural and legal persons, but also associations of individuals that are not legal persons. I don’t know where that is defined in German, though, and I don’t know whether this means it is always safe to translate Person as person.

Writing” includes typing, printing, lithography, photography and other modes of representing or reproducing words in a visible form, and expressions referring to writing are construed accordingly.

bq. Von dem am Spieß gebratenen, kalt gewordenen Indian wird das weiße Fleisch abgelöst und ganz fein geschnitten. Ferner werden 5/10 Liter weiße Sauce mit 5/10 Liter gutem, süßen Rahm und der aus den Abgängen gezogenen, rein entfetteten Essenz zu einer dickfließenden Sauce eingekocht, welche mit dem fein geschnittenen Fleisch gut heiß verrührt, gehörig gesalzen, erhaben angerichtet, mit poschirten Eiern bekränzt und heiß zu Tisch gegeben wird.

This seems to be a turkey recipe (Hachis de dinde aux oeufs).

(From Rottenhöfers Kochbuch, Projekt Gutenberg (German))

Google reveals that Rottenhöfer was a chef at the Bavarian court and his Illustrirtes Kochbuch first appeared in 1858.

Luxus linguae blogs an interview in Spiegel Online (English version) with Peter Torry, the British ambassador to Germany. It’s partly about the German stereotypes of the British.

I’m sorry to be so petty, but I couldn’t help seeing the first line quoted:

bq. SPIEGEL ONLINE: Your German colleague in Great Britain, Ambassador Matussek, put it very differently over the weekend.

‘Your German colleague in Great Britain’ indeed! When will they get native speakers to go over this kind of thing?

The best message for me is probably not to mourn the death of the English language, but to take an interest in it as a curiosity.

English version
Deutsche Version

In der deutschen Ausgabe des German American Law Journal Blogs wird ein Fall in den USA auf Deutsch zusammengefasst, in dem die Beendigung eines Vertrags “for cause” (etwa “für einen wichtigen Grund”) besprochen wurde. Es ging um den Gebrauch eines Wörterbuchs zur Definition von “cause”.

(via University of Texas)

In the case of Lynn A. Joy v. Hay Group, Inc., (a diversity case), Judge Richard Posner of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held that a dictionary could be admitted to define the word ’cause’.

bq. HGI argues that the contractual term “cause” is unambiguous and that the testimony of Lacey and Bassick is ineligible to create an ambiguity because it is not “objective” evidence. The district court agreed and added that the word
“cause” clearly covered the ground on which Joy was fired because one of the dictionary definitions of the word is “a reason, motive, or ground for some action.” That reasoning is untenable; HGI doesn’t even try to defend it. The contract itself contrasts “reasons” and “cause.” Reasons other than cause are explicitly not a ground for denial of severance pay.

bq. The judge’s interpretation implies that if HGI had fired Joy because she was a woman, she would have been fired for cause and thus entitled to no severance pay, because there would have been a reason for firing her—her sex. The judge’s error was to pick from among the several meanings of “cause” one that was inapplicable. Dictionaries give a range of linguistic possibilities; rarely do they help a court decide which one the drafter of the contract or statute in question intended; here, the contract actually excluded the judge’s choice.

(Bold by MM)

This is well observed and very important and is precisely the problem about using dictionaries in court. As translators know, people often use words in a different way than the dictionary records them. The context usually makes it clear what was intended.

I once had something to do with a German case involving a translation in which the judge said that a particular word ‘staff’, was correct because he had seen it himself used in England in the right context (‘staff toilet’). The point may have been correct, but the evidence, from a judge whose English was rudimentary, was not. So beware of judges discussing language and translation.

This case is particularly interesting because it refers to the distinction between ‘reasons’ and ’cause’. Cause means something like ‘good reason’, whereas ‘reason’ means any reason. Only recently, a query to the Yahoo group juristische-uebersetzer asked whether the following sentence:

bq. This agreement may be canceled at any time by either party with or
without cause and for any or no reason.

should be translated in full or abbreviated. Immediately there came a reply to the list that this was the typical English-language belt-and-braces approach and ’cause’ was obviously identical in meaning to ‘reason’. Well, sometimes that’s true of pairs of words, but not here.

Since the beginning of May, the Austrian Supreme Court of Justice has an English version of its website online. It looks good.

The site provides information inter alia on the history, function and personnel of the court and the Procurator General’s Office (Generalprokuratur) and access to judgments (which are in German).

Thanks for the information to Dr. Herbert Hopf, who is a judge at the court and also did the photos on the site.

Biztechdictionary.com is a new site within Wordorigins:

bq. Biztechdictionary.com is a site aimed at collecting and publishing reference citations of slang and jargon used in high tech industries.

bq. The site is very much in “alpha” (to use a good high-tech word) form. There are currently only a handful of entries in the dictionary and the other content is also under development. The look and feel of the site will also probably change in coming months as I improve upon it.

bq. Please check it out and let me know what you think. Suggestions are welcome. And even more welcome would be submissions of citations of high-tech jargon and slang.