SOS Spain: It’s the transition’s fault!
On top of the never-ending financial crisis, we now have a political crisis. The Bárcenas (ex-treasurer of the governing Partido Popular (PP)) and Ana Mato (Minister for Health) corruption scandals...
View ArticleLegal translators have more fun — Part 1: Unique legal systems
A lot of fuss is often made about how difficult legal translation is. But, while it is challenging, it’s also interesting and rewarding. This is partly because of the differences between legal systems....
View ArticleEuropean court points out the bleeding obvious
The European Court of Justice yesterday ruled Spain’s eviction laws to be incompatible with EU law on unfair terms in consumer contracts. The decision will give Spanish judges the power to rule on...
View ArticlePlain English ATO style and the cut and shuffle of legal translations
Meandering about the Web the other day, I stumbled across this pearl of surrealness from the Australian Tax Office (ATO): For the purposes of making a declaration under this Subdivision, the...
View ArticleWhat’s an escrache?
An escrache is what you do when politicians aren’t listening to your pressure group—not even to your rallies, proposals for acts of parliament and other methods for exerting public pressure. First seen...
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CPD and training for legal translators: the good, the ho-hum and the...
Most translators recognise the importance of continued professional development (CPD) or training. It’s probably a requirement for just about all jobs these days. But, are all kinds of CPD equal? Under...
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Truce on bilingual dictionaries
It is often forgotten that dictionaries are artificial repositories, put together well after the languages they define. The roots of language are irrational and of a magical nature. (Jorge Luis Borges,...
View ArticleDo you section articles or break sections into articles?
One common translation problem when translating Spanish legislation into English is whether to translate artículo literally as “article” or use its legal English functional equivalent, ”section”....
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Should translations be literal?
This summer, quite unexpectedly, I got the chance to hear about a direct client’s experience buying translations. A friend of mine and his family were visiting, and while I was driving them back to...
View ArticleEnglish Spanish legal glossary with a nice disclaimer
I just came across this glossary on Twitter: Glossary of legal (and related) terms and courthouse signs English/Spanish I have no idea of how useful it may be, but I like the disclaimer in the...
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