Babel and its Consequences: Legal Translation and Interpreting in the Late Stage of the Habsburg Empire (1848–1918)

Abstract

The area of legal interpreting and translation took shape especially in the wake of the 1848 revolutions which – over the decades to come – implied the creation of some more or less institutionalized sub-areas including sworn interpreters, the “Terminology Commission” or the “Editorial Office of the Imperial Law Gazette” (Reichsgesetzblatt). The discussion of these newly established settings will provide the basis for understanding the concurrence of the elements responsible for what I call the “construction of a Habsburg culture”.

Keywords

• habsburg monarchy
• legal translation and interpreting
• plurilingualism
• institutionalization