My thoughts on my legal dictionaries
Here’s a quick rundown of my legal dictionaries and the use I get out of them: Bilingual Spanish-English legal dictionaries Spanish-English Dictionary of Law and Business, 2nd edition (2012), Thomas L....
View ArticleHow home repossessions in Spain could have been reduced
Postscript to the posts part 1 and 2 on Spain’s home repossession nightmare There would have been fewer home repossessions in Spain if the Bank of Spain had changed how the banks recognised their...
View ArticleThis week: Guest post on “From Words to Deeds”
A new and improved version of one of my first posts, Official translations of Spanish legislation and translating in a vacuum, has been published here on fellow legal translation blog From Words to...
View ArticleThe bearded don’t shave! Who buys good translations?
Coming across a badly translated website can be painful, particularly if you’re a translator. Sometimes, the translation is so bad, and the pain is so great, that it can cause a translator to get in...
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The expat approach to translation: When not to translate a word
An expat chat When you listen to expats talking together about their new country of residence, sometimes you hear strange words pop up. This is usually the result of what you could call the expat...
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“The Invention of Spain” and a prickly question
A radio show that looks at Spain’s regional diversity from a historical perspective is currently being aired on the BBC. You can listen to the three episodes here. This show, “The Invention of Spain”,...
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Content and form: Two books on the law for legal translators
Target system: Form? Glanville Williams: Learning the Law is a useful book for legal translators. Although it’s written mainly for people considering legal careers and is mainly about studying law, it...
View ArticleAbstract and download of my dissertation on legal translation
I’ve just published the abstract to the dissertation I did for my MA on this page. You can also download the whole thing in PDF: Exploring the Use of the Louisiana Civil Code as a Source of English...
View ArticleSOS 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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