This is a very confusing topic. I will try to be brief.

Why translate references at all? It is normally done in running text, but even in footnotes, even though some of these references will only ever be of use to a German law librarian, who will need them in German, not English. – So we will translate, to go with the flow.

Here is an example:

§ 812 Abs. 1 S. 1 1. Alt. BGB (I took this example from Simon and Funk-Baker’s Einführung in die deutsche Rechtssprache, referred to in an earlier entry).
To make it clearer, here is the text:

Titel 26 – Ungerechtfertigte Bereicherung (§§ 812 – 822)
§ 812
Herausgabeanspruch
(1) Wer durch die Leistung eines anderen oder in sonstiger Weise auf dessen Kosten etwas ohne rechtlichen Grund erlangt, ist ihm zur Herausgabe verpflichtet. Diese Verpflichtung besteht auch dann, wenn der rechtliche Grund später wegfällt oder der mit einer Leistung nach dem Inhalt des Rechtsgeschäfts bezweckte Erfolg nicht eintritt.
(2) Als Leistung gilt auch die durch Vertrag erfolgte Anerkennung des Bestehens oder des Nichtbestehens eines Schuldverhältnisses.

(copied from dejure.org)

The first alternative in subsection 1 is the bit before the ‘oder’.

I would translate the reference in British English (BE) as

Section 812.1 sentence 1, first alternative, of the German Civil Code
or Section 812 (1) sentence 1, first alternative, of the German Civil Code
or Section 812 subsection 1 sentence 1, first alternative, of the German Civil Code Continue reading →

I went to Wessobrunn yesterday as I am translating a guide to the monastery. They show you glorious stucco and then forbid you to photograph it. The tour of one corridor with a view into another, and the Tassilo room, takes about 40 minutes. There isn’t time to linger on what you are most interested in, rather as in tours of stately homes, nor were there many books with good pictures on sale. The pictures on the Web are not very good either. There are some grainy shots at the monastery site, and fortunately one of a concert in the Tassilo room, although that doesn’t really do justice to the stucco, which is malachite green with a hunt going on: dogs and foxes (or badgers?) jumping through branches, grimacing faces between; oak leaves, sunflowers, acanthus leaves. What’s the good of having a camera with a ‘museum’ setting? Isn’t a photography ban tantamount to leading a person to sin?

I went to Wessobrunn yesterday as I am translating a guide to the monastery. They show you glorious stucco and then forbid you to photograph it. The tour of one corridor with a view into another, and the Tassilo room, takes about 40 minutes. There isn’t time to linger on what you are most interested in, rather as in tours of stately homes, nor were there many books with good pictures on sale. The pictures on the Web are not very good either. There are some grainy shots at the monastery site, and fortunately one of a concert in the Tassilo room, although that doesn’t really do justice to the stucco, which is malachite green with a hunt going on: dogs and foxes (or badgers?) jumping through branches, grimacing faces between; oak leaves, sunflowers, acanthus leaves. What’s the good of having a camera with a ‘museum’ setting? Isn’t a photography ban tantamount to leading a person to sin?

Vor ein paar Jahren hat die Kanzlei Mischcon de Reya, in der Londoner City, eine Dichterin eingestellt, um die Mitarbeiter (ob Anwälte oder Sekretärinnen) zum Dichten anzuregen. Es gibt es sogar eine deutsche Website mit der Übersetzung eines Gedichts von Lavinia Greenlaw. Die City of London hat (hatte?) auch ihren erste offiziellen Dichter, John Mole.

Following the comment under the entry on Burtlaw, I recall there was a poet in residence at a London law firm a few years ago. The firm was Mishcon de Reya (who represented the Princess of Wales in her divorce – they have a weird website, incidentally with some documents and transcripts from the David Irving/Penguin trial) and the poet Lavinia Greenlaw. She held seminars to encourage people in the firm who wanted to write poetry. Here is a poem of hers in English and German. Continue reading →

Vor ein paar Jahren hat die Kanzlei Mischcon de Reya, in der Londoner City, eine Dichterin eingestellt, um die Mitarbeiter (ob Anwälte oder Sekretärinnen) zum Dichten anzuregen. Es gibt es sogar eine deutsche Website mit der Übersetzung eines Gedichts von Lavinia Greenlaw. Die City of London hat (hatte?) auch ihren erste offiziellen Dichter, John Mole.

Following the comment under the entry on Burtlaw, I recall there was a poet in residence at a London law firm a few years ago. The firm was Mishcon de Reya (who represented the Princess of Wales in her divorce – they have a weird website, incidentally with some documents and transcripts from the David Irving/Penguin trial) and the poet Lavinia Greenlaw. She held seminars to encourage people in the firm who wanted to write poetry. Here is a poem of hers in English and German. Continue reading →

Happy birthday on 30th May to Burton Hanson, whose weblog Burtlaw’s Law and Everything Else does not separate law and literature – rather like Mortimer’s Rumpole of the Bailey, links for whom are provided under the category Law and Brits.

Here is a list of the categories:

bq. Daily Quick Links – Daily Quotes – Daily Poem -BurtLaw’s Places – Featured Sites – Greatest Quotes On Law – Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Laws – Law and Justice Holmes – Law And Love I & II – Law And Kissing – Law And Poetry – Legal Writing – Romantic Flicks I & II – Rockin’ Rand Recommends – Court Gazing I & II & III & IV & V – Judging – Mandatory Retirement of Judges – Judicial Economics – Judicial Independence & Accountability – Judicial Elections – Lawyers On Parade – Law And Economics – Legal Secretaries – BurtLaw’s Legal History – Secular Sermons – Law & Christmas – Law and Women – Law And Kids – Fathers And Kids – Law And Norwegians – Law and Brits – Law And Dogs – Animals – Law & Death – Law & Comics – Law and Friends – Law and Swimsuits – Crime And Punishment – Capital Punishment – BurtLaw’s CaseLaw – Politics – Harvard Law School – War I & II & III & IV – About BRH – About Mathilda Wonder Dog – Contact BRH

‘Law and Poetry’ seems a bit lacking in law (although it has a couple of Hanson’s own verses for Valentine’s Day).