ENGLISH- THE TRANSPLANTATION OF ARABIC TERMINOLOGY IN CRIMINAL LAW: A CROSS-LINGUAL TEXT ANALYSIS OF THE PAKISTAN PENAL CODE, 1860

Abstract

A majority of laws operating in Pakistan are embraced from British Legal System. Therefore, the lingua franca in legal system of Pakistan is English. However, Arabic language, being a source of transmission of Islamic law, has a great contribution to compile legal terminologies in criminal and family laws of the country. The study in hand highlights such Arabic terms, their literal and technical meanings alongside the legal interpretations incurred by the higher judiciary of Pakistan. The asymmetry between English and Arabic criminal law creates difficulty for translators as the former lacks the capacity to comprehend needs and structure of the Islamic legal system. So, Islamic criminal law can appropriately be explained and applied only through the use of Arabic terminology. Moreover, the study concludes that the workability of Arabic terminology as legal transplantation to a large extent depends upon the social and judicial acceptance or absorption in the legal fraternity in particular and in the public in general. This is a simple cross-lingual text analysis where the study is limited to analyze the prevailing Pakistan Penal Code, 1860 (PPC) and excludes all other substantive and adjective laws. Hence, further research may be conducted to find the appropriateness for inculcation of the required variant terminology in comparison with other existing laws of the country.

Keywords

• Language in Law, Criminal law, Arabic Terminology, Islamic Law, Pakistan