COMPARATIVE LAW AND LEGAL TRANSLATION IN THE SEARCH FOR FUNCTIONAL EQUIVALENTS – INTERTWINED OR SEPARATE DOMAINS?

Abstract

There are no two identical languages, and there are no two identical legal systems; this is the challenge for both comparative lawyers and legal translators. Legal comparison is necessary to obtain the adequate legal translation, which in turn is applied to give comparative lawyers information about foreign legal systems. Although comparative lawyers and legal translators often face similar quandaries when engaged in the translation of legal terms, they operate within distinct theoretical frameworks and make use of different methodologies. In order to determine whether the functional method developed for comparative legal studies can be a useful tool for legal translators, this paper compares this method with the methodology applied by legal translators to find functional equivalents.

Keywords

• comparative
• law
• legilinguistics
• legal translation
• equivalent