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? Usually something like indemnizaciones por daños y perjuicios, literally,...
The rule of law / estado de derecho can of worms
Estado de derecho is often translated as “rule of law”, but the terms are not exact equivalents, as O’Donnell states in this paper that...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Juries in Spain and the President of Valencia’s new suits
Trial by jury In the common law world, trial by jury is closely associated with the notion of receiving a fair trial. Despite its...
Dahl’s Law Dictionary — a legal dictionary with a unique approach
I could have called this post “the review that made me buy a legal dictionary” because that’s exactly what the following words made me...
Resources on civil proceedings in Spain vs. England & juicio oral vs. juicio verbal
Civil cases in Spain The other day I stumbled across a good resource for legal translators here. It explains civil procedure in Spain and...
Spain’s housing repossession nightmare and dación en pago — Part 2
(…continued from Spain’s housing repossession nightmare and dación en pago — Part 1.) Landmark case In November 2010, a judge in Navarre found “that...
Spain’s home repossession nightmare and dación en pago — Part 1
The financial crisis—the one that seemed like old news a long time ago but is still here, at least in Spain, has triggered a...
Official translations of Spanish legislation and translating in a vacuum
As reported here, the Spanish Ministry of Justice has made English and French translations of some Spanish legislation available on this page. While this...
Hardline election promises and translating “delito” and “falta”
This week, Duran i Lleida, CiU’s candidate for the Spanish general election to be held this month, announced that one of his party’s election...
LegalSpainTerm is born!
I have just published the rationale behind LegalSpainTerm, which is basically just a collection of descriptions and definitions of Spanish legal terms with possible...
