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Tools for improving quality in legal translation: the LAW10n project
Carmen Bestue and Mariana OrozcoQualetra Launch Conference
London, April 4th 2013
QUALETRAJUST/2011/JPEN/AG/2975
With financial support from the Criminal Justice Programme of the European Commission Directorate General Justice
This publication has been produced with the financial support of the Criminal Justice Support Programme of the European Union. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of the authors and can in no way be taken to
reflect the views of the European Commission.
LAW10n Project Localisation of technology lawFunded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (FFI2010-22019)
Researchers: Olga Torres Hostench (UAB, principal researcher)Carmen Bestué Salinas (UAB)Mariana Orozco Jutorán (UAB)Fernando Prieto Ramos (Université de Geneve)Pilar Cid Leal (UAB)Adelina Gómez González-Jover (Universidad de Alicante)Elina Lagoudaki (Imperial College London)Roberto Mayoral Asensio (Universidad de Granada)Ramon Piqué (UAB)
Main goal
Create a tool in which the translator, for each entry, finds legal, terminological
and translational information that enables him/her to make informed
decisions.
Legal transplant without harmonisation in terminology
SpainSpain
MerchantabilityMerchantability
England and Wales
Satisfactory quality
England and Wales
Satisfactory quality
FranceFrance
UN
CISG, 1980
Fit for the purposes
UN
CISG, 1980
Fit for the purposes
ECDirective 1999/44 Consumer
salesFit for
purposes
ECDirective 1999/44 Consumer
salesFit for
purposes
Not uniform solution
Not uniform solution
? ?
??
….
1980 - United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG)
Art. 35.Except where the parties have agreed otherwise, the goods do not conform with the contract unless they:
(a)Are fit for the purposes for which goods of the same description would ordinarily be used
European Legislation, 1999/44 CE Directive on the sale of consumer goodsEnglish French Spanish
Article 2Conformity with the contract (c) are fit for the purposes for which goods of the same type are normally used;(d) show the quality and performance which are normal in goods of the same type and which the consumer can reasonably expect, given the nature of the goods and taking into account any public statements on the specific characteristics of the goods made about them by the seller, the producer or his representative, particularly in advertising or on labelling.
Article 2Conformité au contratc) s'il est propre aux usages auxquels servent habituellement les biens du même type;d) s'il présente la qualité et les prestations habituelles d'un bien de même type auxquelles le consommateur peut raisonnablement s'attendre, eu égard à la nature du bien et, le cas échéant, compte tenu des déclarations publiques faites sur les caractéristiques concrètes du bien par le vendeur, par le producteur ou par son représentant, notamment dans la publicité ou l'étiquetage.
Artículo 2Conformidad con el contratoc) son aptos para los usos a que ordinariamente se destinen bienes del mismo tipo;d) presentan la calidad y las prestaciones habituales de un bien del mismo tipo que el consumidor puede fundadamente esperar, habida cuenta de la naturaleza del bien y, en su caso, de las declaraciones públicas sobre las características concretas de los bienes hechas por el vendedor, el productor o su representante, en particular en la publicidad o el etiquetado.
Transplant of legal concepts I
Domestic lawEnglish law French law Spanish law
(1)Except as provided by this section and section 15 below and subject to any other enactment, there is no implied [F1term] about the quality or fitness for any particular purpose of goods supplied under a contract of sale.[F2(2)Where the seller sells goods in the course of a business, there is an implied term that the goods supplied under the contract are of satisfactory quality.(2A)For the purposes of this Act, goods are of satisfactory quality if they meet the standard that a reasonable person would regard as satisfactory, taking account of any description of the goods, the price (if relevant) and all the other relevant circumstances.(2B)For the purposes of this Act, the quality of goods includes their state and condition and the following (among others) are in appropriate cases aspects of the quality of goods—(a)fitness for all the purposes for which goods of the kind in question are commonly supplied,(b)appearance and finish,(c)freedom from minor defects,(d)safety, and(e)durability.
Pour être conforme au contrat, le bien doit :1° Etre propre à l'usage habituellement attendu d'un bien semblable et, le cas échéant :- présenter les qualités qu'un acheteur peut légitimement attendre eu égard aux déclarations publiques faites par le vendeur, par le producteur ou par son représentant, notamment dans la publicité ou l'étiquetage ;
Artículo 116. Conformidad de los productos con el contrato.1. Salvo prueba en contrario, se entenderá que los productos son conformes con el contrato siempre que cumplan todos los requisitos que se expresan a continuación, salvo que por las circunstancias del caso alguno de ellos no resulte aplicable:a. Sean aptos para los usos a que ordinariamente se destinen los productos del mismo tipo.Presenten la calidad y prestaciones habituales de un producto del mismo tipo que el consumidor y usuario pueda fundadamente esperar, habida cuenta de la naturaleza del producto y, en su caso, de las declaraciones públicas sobre las características concretas de los productos hechas por el vendedor, el productor o su representante, en particular en la publicidad o en el etiquetado el producto.
Transplant of legal concepts II
Concepts and legal terminology
Merchantable quality
Merchantable quality
Meaning not implied condition of any particular
grade or standard
Meaning not implied condition of any particular
grade or standard
Term Term
Juri
sdic
tion
Juri
sdic
tion
1995 - Today1995 - Today
Other Common law
countries
Other Common law
countries
MerchantabilityMerchantability Meaning kind and quality average
Meaning kind and quality average
Merchantable quality
Merchantable quality
Satisfactory quality
Satisfactory quality
US UCCUS UCC
England &WalesEngland &Wales
1893 - 19951893 - 1995
CopyrightBroadening of meaning
Negative conception
Culturalchange
Common Law
Trade marks
PatentsDistinctive
signs
Field of application
Licenses
Civil Law
Transplant
Transplant
Software licenses
End user license agreements
Functions of the target text The source text is the contract
Document translation
Instrument translation
Source Text
Source Text Target textTarget text
To inform
Interpretation
Target textTarget text
Source Text
The target text is the contract
Document translation ≠ literal translation Document translation = faithful translationSource text Target text
11. General Provisions.If any part of this agreement is found void and
unenforceable, it will not affect the validity of the balance
of this agreement, which will remain valid and enforceable according to its terms. This agreement may
only be modified in writing, signed by an authorized officer of Adobe. The English version of this
agreement will be the version used when interpreting or construing this agreement. This is the entire
agreement between Adobe and Customer relating to the Software and it supersedes any prior
representations, discussions, undertakings, communications, or advertising relating to the Software
11. Disposiciones generales.Si se determina que cualquier parte de este contrato es
nula y no exigible, lo anterior no afectará a lavalidez del resto del contrato, que será válido y
exigible de conformidad con sus términos. Este contrato
sólo se podrá modificar mediante un escrito firmado por un representante autorizado de Adobe. La
versión en inglés de este contrato será la versión utilizada para interpretar este contrato. Éste es el
contrato completo entre Adobe y el Cliente en relación con el Software y reemplaza cualquier representación, discusión, tarea, comunicación o publicidad anterior relacionada con el Software.
2.1.7.2 For clarification and without limitation, the foregoing does not permit Customer to install or
access (either directly or through commands, data, or instructions) the Software:
2.1.7.2 Como aclaración y sin limitación, lo anterior no permite al Cliente instalar o acceder (ya sea directamente o mediante comandos, datos o instrucciones) al Software:
Instrument translation
Treatment of textual elements
To avoid redundant expressions “this is a legally binding contract between you…”
Impositions from the law of the source culture
What to do with clauses that are in contradiction with the target law, i.e. warranty terms.
Translation of cultural bound terms that doesn’t exist in the target legal culture.
13Carmen Bestué
Carmen Bestué 14
Textual elements
Carmen Bestué 15
Cultural bound terms
Who translates legal documents?
• Freelance translators (non specialists)• Legal translators• Lawyers• Localisers (in technology law, such as
EULAs)
Which information resources do they have?
• Legal translators have a myriad of legal resources available
• Legal translators and lawyers search on the Internet for glossaries, reference texts, parallel documents and forums.
• The quality of legal translations has improved dramatically since the introduction of the Internet as an information source.
However, it has not made easier translator’s work.
Review of currente-resources for legal translation1. Online legal dictionaries and glossaries:
2. Open multilingual terminology databases:
IATE, UNTERM, IMF…
Pros Cons
Easy to useMost are free
-Good quality dictionaries are expensive and difficult to access. / - Best legal dictionaries are still printed.- No legal advice given.- Limited to terminology.
Pros Cons
Large, free.*TermWiki
Limited to the legal context of international institutions. Do not contain much legal terminology for technology law.
Review of currente-resources for legal translation3. Privately owned terminology databases: SDL Multiterm, TermStar, EvoTerm…
4. Translation memories
MemoQ, SDL Trados, Across, Transit, Déjà Vu, OmegaT…
Pros Cons
AccurateCustomized for specific projectsPrivately owned
Limited to personal experienceFed only by the translator or the clientLimited in size
Pros Cons
Reuse of translations.*MyMemory translated.net*TransSearch
Authority questionableNo legal comments or translation advice
Review of currente-resources for legal translation5. Search engines: Google, Ask.com, Bing // Law Crawler, Legalengine.com
6. Translators Forums: Proz.com (KudoZ), Wordreference, Yahoo groups
Pros Cons
ExhaustiveShow frequency of use.Authentic contexts.Useful to check names.
Relevancy of results.Monolingual results.Authority questionable.
Pros Cons
Direct contact with legal terms users and experts*KudoZ
Authority questionableNormally limited to terminology, no explanation of legal context.
Review of currente-resources for legal translation7. Legal ontologies: LOIS, JurWordNet, LRI-Core…
8. Corpora (legal and general): JRC-Acquis, Linguee.es, Juris text corpus, ICE-GB…
Pros Cons
Pr ovide conceptual information
Not user-friendly Developed by jurists, not translatorsIncompleteIn law, parallel mapping is difficult to carry out
Pros Cons
User friendly Most are monolingual or multilingual, but not parallel No translation advice missing
Review of currente-resources for legal translation9. Legal databases: Lexis, Westlaw, CELEX, EUR-Lex…
10. Digital legal libraries
Pros Cons
Accurate and exhaustive.User-friendlyOriginal resources.
Many legal systems are poorly represented.No translation advice.
Pros Cons
Law Guru.com, FindLaw, Library of Congress Thomas,The British Academy Digital Library Cornell University Law Library…
IncompleteMostly in USANo translation advice.
However…
An analysis of an extensive corpus of EULAs translated from English into Spanish shows that all these resources are not helping to significantly improve the quality of legal translations
Example: term “merchantability”• Context: implied warranty of
merchantability
• Definition: A warranty that the property is fit for the ordinary purposes for which it is used. [Black’s Law Dictionary]
Merchantability in the English, French and Spanish legal systems
• English into English: USA “merchantability” vs. European “satisfactory quality” (different legal systems as has been explained)
• English into French and Spanish: non-existent legal term in legal target culture
“Merchantability” in French
Concept qui participe du principe de:
•Vices cachés: « le vendeur est tenu de la garantie à raison des défauts cachés de la chose vendue qui la rendent impropre à l'usage auquel on la destine, ou qui diminuent tellement cet usage, que l'acheteur ne l'aurait pas acquise, ou n'en aurait donné qu'un moindre prix, s'il les avait connus » (art. 1641Cc.)
•Non-conformité: Il existe quatre cas pour lesquelles un produit acheté est considéré comme non conforme (arts. 211-4 à 211-14C.consom.) :
– S’il ne correspond pas à l’usage qui peut en être habituellement attendu ;
– S’il ne correspond pas à la description donnée par le vendeur ;
– S’il ne possède pas les qualités publiquement présentées par le vendeur ou le producteur, notamment dans la publicité ou l’étiquetage
– S’il ne présente pas les qualités recherchées par l’acheteur, connues du vendeur et acceptées par lui.
“Merchantability” in SpanishConcepto de idoneidad de los bienes para el fin propuesto o pactado o conformidad de los bienes. [art. 116 de RDL 1/2007]
Artículo 116. Conformidad de los bienes con el contrato.
1. Salvo prueba en contrario, se entenderá que los bienes son conformes con el contrato siempre que cumplan todos los requisitos que se expresan a continuación, salvo que por las circunstancias del caso alguno de ellos no resulte aplicable:
a) Se ajusten a la descripción realizada por el vendedor y posean las cualidades del bien que el vendedor haya presentado al consumidor en forma de muestra o modelo.
b) Sean aptos para los usos a que ordinariamente se destinen los bienes del mismo tipo.
c) Sean aptos para cualquier uso especial requerido por el consumidor cuando lo haya puesto en conocimiento del vendedor en el momento de celebración del contrato, siempre que éste haya admitido que el bien es apto para dicho uso.
“Merchantability” in Spanish
• Monolingual legal dictionaries: inexistent term
• Bilingual English-Spanish legal dictionaries:
comerciabilidad, condición de poder ser comercializado; mercancías aptas para el comercio. [Diccionario de términos jurídicos de Alcaraz y Hughes, Diccionario de comercio internacional de Alcaraz y Castro, Diccionario jurídico español/inglés de Cabanellas de las Cuevas]
(hybrid terms that do not exist in the target culture)
Multilingual open data bases: IATE
Privately own terminology databases:Microsoft language portal
Example of target-oriented equivalent:
G. NO OTHER WARRANTIES. THE LIMITED WARRANTY IS THE ONLY DIRECT WARRANTY FROM MICROSOFT. MICROSOFT GIVES NO OTHER EXPRESS WARRANTIES, GUARANTEES OR CONDITIONS. WHERE ALLOWED BY YOUR LOCAL LAWS, MICROSOFT EXCLUDES IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. If your local laws give you any implied warranties, guarantees or conditions, despite this exclusion, your remedies are described in the Remedy for Breach of Warranty clause above, to the extent permitted by your local laws.
EXCLUSIÓN DE OTRAS GARANTÍAS. LA GARANTÍA LIMITADA CONSTITUYE LA ÚNICA GARANTÍA DIRECTA DE MICROSOFT. MICROSOFT NO OTORGA NINGUNA OTRA GARANTÍA NI CONDICIÓN EXPLÍCITAS. EN LA MEDIDA EN QUE ASÍ LO PERMITA LA LEGISLACIÓN DE SU ESTADO O PAÍS, MICROSOFT EXCLUYE LAS GARANTÍAS IMPLÍCITAS DE IDONEIDAD PARA UNA FINALIDAD GENERAL O PARTICULAR Y AUSENCIA DE INFRACCIÓN. Si la legislación de su estado o país le otorga garantías o condiciones implícitas a pesar de lo previsto en esta cláusula de exclusión, los recursos de los que dispondrá ….
General corpora: Linguee
Translator’s forums: Proz
Result: EULAs translations into Spanish (general corpus)
Translations into Spanish (restricted EULAs corpus)
• 60%: comerciabilidad
• 20%: comercialización
• 20%: a more target -oriented formulation
What is the translation process and how can we help improve it?
• Research, consisting of questionnaires and interviews given to translators of EULAs (large, medium-sized and small companies, freelancers and lawyers) in order to define the process
• Carried out in 2010 in Spain and England
Conclusions• It is not enough to use the best resources currently available
to solve terminological problems in legal translation.• The “translation record” (created by LAW10) provides
translators with the information necessary to enable informed decisions to be made within the framework of any translation brief.
• Principles of comparative law should be included when developing multilingual or bilingual lexicographical or terminographical resources for translation between different legal systems.
• Consultation with experts in the specialist field to which the source text belongs should be routine practice when translating legal texts
