How to translate the start of a Spanish contract into English
Translating the introductory clauses of Spanish contracts into English can be confusing — a bit like trying to fit square pegs into round holes,...
eBook on translating contracts — beta version
I’ve just finished the self-edited, beta version of an ebook on translating contracts into English. The book provides a systematic approach for translating contracts...
Daños doesn’t equal damages and the difference between damage and damages
Most of the time, daños means “damage”, in singular. What, then, is “damages” in Spanish? Normally, something like indemnizaciones por daños y perjuicios, literally,...
Slides, handout and thoughts on my METM16 workshop on translating contracts
This is a follow-up post to the workshop on translating contracts into English I did at the METM16 conference in Tarragona. You can download...
Using models for translating contracts (quick tip 9)
Translating a document requires knowing what it looks like in the target language, especially in a format-heavy genre like contracts. And knowing what the...
A heavy-duty resource for legal translators: A thematic lexicon by Rebecca Jowers
Anyone who’s looked up legal terms on ProZ term search in the Spanish-to-English combination will probably be familiar with Rebecca Jowers. You’re likely to...
Lexacom Skype course
A few weeks back, I did one of David Hutchins’s courses for legal translators. David is a solicitor who gives law courses of all...
Quick tip for translating contracts (8): use only useful legalese (and when to use “hereby”)
While most contract drafting guides suggest we avoid legalese, they do usually see a point to what you could call “useful legalese”. Hereby Take...
Resources for translating contracts (6): Some tips for improving Spanish-to-English legal translation
This straight-to-the-point paper by Daniel Kaplan has some useful tips for translating contracts. 1. False friends Kaplan points out a couple of false friends...
Quick tip for translating contracts (7): Mainly call contracts agreements
When translating a contract, it can be surprisingly difficult to work out what to call it in English. You’d think that would be easy...
Quick tip for translating contracts (6): don’t use word–numeral doublets
Just about any contract drafting or legal style guide you pick up will tell you to avoid using word–numeral doublets: E.g., instead of: He...
Quick tip for translating contracts (5): build a clause library
Firstly, what is a clause library? Basically just a place (e.g., an Excel file) where you can store your preferred translations for typical clauses...
Quick tip for translating contracts (4): distinguish between formulaic language and contract information
Distinguishing between formulaic language and contract information is, I believe, the key to translating contracts and other formal legal documents. The only thing that...
Resources for translating contracts (5): Legal Writing in Plain English
Bryan Garner’s Legal Writing in Plain English has some excellent tips for legal writing and writing general. It’s not about any one type of...
Pulling my head out of the sand and why so much on contracts lately
I’ve been talking about translating contracts a lot lately on this blog. You’d be surprised to know there’s actually a reason for it. Earlier...
Learn legalese and then forget it
In his book, Legal Writing in Plain English, Bryan A. Garner says law students should learn legalese and then learn not use it: When...
Quick tip for translating contracts (3): what tense where
In Basic Legal Drafting, Anne Rutledge makes a useful distinction between promissory and descriptive language: A promissory statement is one that “articulates a promise”...
Resources for translating contracts (4): Basic Legal Drafting
Basic Legal Drafting by Anne Rutledge covers three areas of legal drafting: litigation documents, contracts and legislative documents. I went straight for what interests...
Quick tip for translating contracts (2): don’t use “undertakes to”
According to Tiffany Kemp in her book Essential Contract Drafting Skills (spoken about here), we shouldn’t use “undertakes to” because it’s legalese with no...
The legal translator as a practitioner
Seeing yourself as a practitioner is a powerful idea for legal translators. I first came across this idea in this blog post by Lloyd...
Resources for translating contracts (3): Essential Contract Drafting Skills
Here’s another useful resource for translating contracts: Essential Contract Drafting Skills — a Practical Guide by Tiffany Kemp It’s a short book (doesn’t have...
Resources for translating contracts (2): the mother-of-all contract drafting books: MSCD
“Mother-of-all” might be an overstatement, as I’m sure there are other thick books out there on how to draft contracts in English, but this...
Things I learnt from a journo about translating culture-specific terms: (3) Good translations from collective bouncing-off
This is the third on a series of posts on what I took away from the final talk at the METM14 conference (part 1...
Some requirements for translating legal documents
Based on my surely not-that-accurate restaurant-menu analogy post of the other day, which at least highlights some of the main characteristics of legal translation,...
Legal and menu translation
Legal translation is a lot like translating restaurant menus. Firstly, both types of translation are full of culture-specific or non-equivalent terms, i.e., terms that...
