Legally Yours from Spain
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Things I learnt from a journo about translating culture-specific terms: (1) Description trumps linguistic solutions
The final talk at the METM14 conference held recently in Madrid was an interesting and entertaining one by journalist Martin Roberts. Martin had a...
Why proofreaders are important and when to get angry with your translator
Don’t get upset when your translator sends you a translation containing simple writing errors — it could actually be a good sign! What you’re...
Posts also in Spanish
In case anyone’s interested, I’ve also started publishing posts in Spanish. The focus is slightly different, although I may translate them to English and...
Example of a safe-bet translation
Someone recently emailed me asking for an example of a safe-bet translation, which I wrote about in this post. Safe bets are basically sitting-on-the-fence...
La casta política and where it came from
Here’s an interesting term that’s become popular in Spain: la casta as in la casta política. Literally, it’s the “political caste”, or the old...
Aforamiento: making us unequal before the law and wreaking havoc in bilingual dictionaries
When the King of Spain Juan Carlos de Borbón decided to call it a day and abdicate, he put everyone into a frenzy, the...
Not that effective changes to Spain’s eviction law
As an occasional topic on this blog has been the wave of evictions of mortgage defaulters in Spain brought on by the financial crisis...
Safe-bet errors: a translation’s worst enemy
An easy way to wreck an otherwise good translation is to include the safe-bet translation of a term or two in it. What’s a...
You gotta do what you gotta do: Classic polispeak from Spain
Here’s a fantastic bit of polispeak from a PP (Partido Popular) party rally in Spain. It’s from a couple of years back, but it’s...
A cognitive slip and something about the translation relationship
The following exchange on Twitter got me thinking about the difference between important and difficult translations and how I might have confused the two...
Book Review: The Civil Law Tradition
The Civil Law Tradition by John Henry Merryman and Rogelio Pérez-Perdomo is excellent background reading for translators in any language combination crossing the civil–common law...
The confusing and mysterious world of being an imputado
What is an imputado? So many politicians in Spain are imputados that a recently arrived Martian might assume you have to be an imputado...
English <> 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...
Do you section articles or break sections into articles?
Should you translate artículo literally as “article” or should you use the English functional equivalent “section” when translating references to Spanish legislation into English? You...
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...
CPD and training for legal translators: the good, the ho-hum and the mind-breaking
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...
What’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...
Plain 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...
European 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...
Legal 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...
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...
Abstract 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...
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...
What’s in a name? Spain’s great faith in public servants
Like most civil services, Spain’s bureaucracy wants to bring order to the world and everything in it. But while in other places they seek...