Tag Archives: law

Translating ‘Rechtsverordnung’ into English

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In a recent comment, the term Rechtsverordnung was mentioned, and it reminded me of an article by Geoffrey Perrin, then of the Sprachendienst, Bundesministerium der Justiz, in an issue of Lebende Sprachen so long ago that the cover was still blue (LS No. 1/1988, pp. 17-18). It is one of the best things I have ever read on German-English legal translation. There was a later article on the vocabulary of juvenile crime and prosecution that was good too. I found Perrin translated the Nationality Act (Staatsangehörigkeitsgesetz) for Inter Nationes, who have published English versions of numerous statutes both on paper (I ordered some free of charge by post once) and online. This translation is also available at the German Law Archive.

The article takes the problems of translating the term Rechtsverordnung into English as examples of the problems of translating legal terminology in general. For a summary, see the continuation. Continue reading →

eBusinessLex

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According to Handakte WebLAWg, this legal portal for ebusiness in 12 languages went online today. English seems to be fairly well represented. The glossary was also available in Italian and Dutch. So you can choose Glossary in English and then go straight to the Italian. You then know that ADR – Alternative Dispute Resolution – in English is ADR (Alternative Dispute Resolution) plus Italian definition in Italian. Under Legislation (English), however, I got a list of all the relevant German statutes – a clickable screen folds down for ten countries.
This could become useful.

Internationaler Urkundenverkehr / International Recognition of Documents

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Information from the German Department of Foreign Affairs / Informationen vom Auswärtigen Amt

German certified translations sent outside Germany often need some kind of apostille to confirm that the translator was authorized. The translation itself cannot be given an apostille, but the President of the Landgericht where the translator was sworn can issue a confirmation that the translator is sworn, and that confirmation is a public document and can be given an apostille!

Beeidigte Übersetzungen fürs Ausland brauchen oft eine Apostille. Da ein Übersetzer aber keine öffentlichen Urkunden erstellt und nur Sachverständiger ist, kann eine beeidigte Übersetzung nicht mit einer Apostille versehen werden. Nötiger Zwischenschritt: der Präsident des Gerichts, wo der Übersetzer beeidigt wurde, kann die Beeidigung bestätigen; diese Bestätigung ist eine öffentliche Urkunde und kann mit einer Apostille versehen werden.

This confusing area is described in English and German on the website of the German Department of Foreign Affairs

Auf Englisch und Deutsch wird diese verwirrende Sache im Internetauftritt des Auswärtigen Amts beschrieben.

I have this information from Trudi Goetz, who posted it on a mailing list. Dieses Link wurde von Trudi Goetz auf einer Mailingliste gepostet.

Videos

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Jurist’s Paper Chase links to a video of a press conference at the UN showing the President and the newly-elected prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. Good for broadband /ADSL connections.
There is also a debate on gun control from Harvard, with Eugene Volokh (introduced by Sasha Volokh, both of The Volokh Conspiracy), Alan Dershowitz and Dennis Henigan. This video would be useful practice material for consecutive interpreting.
The Volokh Conspiracy also reports that you can get a robot vacuum cleaner for $199 now in the USA, by Roomba (the Electrolux one, the Trilobite, costs about EUR 1500).
A look around the Web shows Dyson have one too, and Panasonic is working on one. Their performance is widely said to ‘suck’. But I have great hopes of them.

Jurawiki

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From Langenhan, Rainer and Melanie, Internet für Juristen, 4th ed. 2003, ISBN 3 472 05106 X (Rainer Langenhan is the author of the HandAkte WebLAWg), a definition of wikis. I had seen wikipedia but didn’t realize what a wiki was. ‘Wikipedia is a multilingual project to create a complete and accurate open content encyclopedia. ‘

Wikipedia itself has a law section, and if you click on Deutsch, you get a German law page in real German, not (as one always fears now) a page of Babelfish MT gibberish.

I looked up equity, found the maxims, and was surprised by some of them.

Plain English has turned Equity aids the vigilant and not the indolent into Equity aids the vigilant, not those who sleep on their rights. Equity does not require an idle gesture was new to me, to say nothing of the law students’ summary in a final maxim (must be American).

There’s also a German law wiki. Some interesting notes on Aktenzeichen led me to rather painstaking allocation of cases in Saxony (Amtsgericht Dresden). When allocating cases by the parties’ last names:

‘Außer Betracht bleiben dabei

Adelsbezeichnungen;
die Zusätze Abdel, Abu, al, auf dem, auf der, auf die, Ben, d’, da, dal(a), dall(a), de, del, dell’, delle, del la, della, di, do(s), du, el, la, le, lo, M’, Mac, Mc, N’, O’, tel, tem, ten, ter, van, van de, van den, van der, van ten, van ter, vom, von, von dem, von der, von zu (m,r) und zu (m,r);
bei Doppelnamen der zweite Name.
Diese Regelung gilt ohne Rücksicht auf die Schreibweise und unabhängig davon, ob ein Bindestrich verwendet wird oder mehrere dieser Zusätze Bestandteil des Namens sind.’