Translating for a Multilingual Legal System: Ambiguity, Hybridity - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Translating for a Multilingual Legal System: Ambiguity, Hybridity - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Translating for a Multilingual Legal System: Ambiguity, Hybridity and the Impact of Translation on European Union Law Karen McAuliffe University of Birmingham @dr_KMcA Law and Language at the ECJ Development of precedent in Producing

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Translating for a Multilingual Legal System: Ambiguity, Hybridity and the Impact of Translation on European Union Law

Karen McAuliffe University of Birmingham @dr_KMcA

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Law and Language at the ECJ

Producing a multilingual jurisprudence

  • a sociology of the ECJ
  • has the institutional model changed post 2004?
  • a linguistic cultural compromise at the Court?

Reinforcement of constitutional pluralism?

Development of ‘precedent’ in ECJ judgments

Precedent:

  • a conscious jurisprudential strategy
  • mechanics of jurisprudential drafting

Translation adds another variable

The changing role of the AG

  • question of persuasive logics
  • Deliberative effect of language

What does this mean for the development of EU law? BUT Is there continuity across languages? Do different scholars construct different meanings and precedents from different linguistic constructions?

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Methodology

RQs

Case law analysis Observa1onal data Interview data Corpus linguis1cs analysis Systema1c literature reviews

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Why Language?

  • Law: a culture-specific communica1ve system
  • ECJ: mul1lingual output (up to 24 languages)
  • Transla1on and the incongruency of legal

systems

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Why Language?

  • Pommer (2012): The task of the legal

translator is “to make the foreign legal text accessible for recipients with a different (legal) background”

  • Sarçević: “the ul:mate goal of legal

transla:on is to produce parallel texts that will be interpreted and applied uniformly by the courts”

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Transla1on at the ECJ

BG ES CS DA DE ET EL EN FR GA HR IT LV LT HU MT NL PL PT RO SK SL FI SV BG ES CS DA DE ET EL EN FR GA HR IT LV LT HU MT NL PL PT RO SK SL FI SV

JUDGMENT WORKING LANGUAGE: FRENCH

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Transla1on at the ECJ

BG ES CS DA DE ET

EL

EN FR GA HR IT LV LT HU MT NL PL PT RO SK SL FI SV BG ES CS DA DE ET

EL

EN FR GA HR IT LV LT HU MT NL PL PT RO SK SL FI SV

JUDGMENT WORKING LANGUAGE: FRENCH

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Transla1on at the ECJ

Case brought before CJEU Allocated to judge rapporteur (and AG where relevant) Documents translated into French Report of the judge rapporteur prepared by référendaire (in French) Where relevant, AG and référendaires prepare opinion (in pivot languages) First version of judgment draaed by référendaire (in French) Secret delibera1ons (in French) Final judgment draaed (in French) Judgment translated into language of the case (authen1c version of judgment and version signed by judges) and all other official languages

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Transla1on at the ECJ

BG ES CS DA DE ET EL EN FR GA HR IT LV LT HU MT NL PL PT RO SK SL FI SV BG ES CS DA DE ET EL EN FR GA HR IT LV LT HU MT NL PL PT RO SK SL FI SV

JUDGMENT WORKING LANGUAGE: FRENCH

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Transla1on at the ECJ

EL Reformulated FR Working on the case file FR Report FR

No1fica1on published in OJ TRANSLATED INTO ALL EU OFFICIAL LANGUAGES

Poten1al Interven1ons (poten1ally in all languages) TRANSLATED INTO FRENCH

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(Hidden) Transla1on and Legal Reasoning

“...I tend to translate what I want to say into French instead

  • f really working in

French...” (interviewee’s emphasis); “...all of my own reasoning and thinking about the case is done in my own language and then put into French when I come to the wri:ng stage...”.

  • Friedman: a legal

scholar is ‘reined in’ by his/her own legal language

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“...as a star:ng point... I scan my glossary of French terms and phrases frequently used by the Court and find something that covers the gist of what I want to say...”; “I will usually have a basic idea in my head of the direc:on I want to go in and what I want to say and then I use the set phrases that I have collated in my glossary to start me off and shape what I write...”.

(Hidden) Transla1on and Legal Reasoning

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…all this cuhng and pas1ng, repe11on and the conven1ons of wri1ng style

  • etc. lead inevitable to a kind
  • f hybrid language used

within the court – a Court French “…en1re phrases are repeated over and over again to the extent that eventually a new type of French has emerged: the French of the Court of Jus1ce “we are in a ‘Court French’ bubble – we can’t write any other way

‘Court French’

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Secret Delibera1ons

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Pivot Transla1on

PIVOT LANGUAGES

  • EN
  • DE
  • IT
  • ES
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Pivot Transla1on

(a) Documents draaed in ‘post-2004’ languages

Translated into French Member State observa1ons

  • r

applica1on to intervene Translated into language of procedure (where this is the relevant pivot language) Translated into language of procedure (where this is not the relevant pivot language) Translated into French All other documents

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Pivot Transla1on

(b) Documents draaed in ‘pre-2004’ languages

Order for reference for a preliminary ruling Translated into Language of procedure (i.e. In cases where language of procedure is a‘new‘ language and the original document is not draaed in the relevant pivot language) Translated into French Translated into Language of procedure (where this is the relevant pivot language) Member State observa1ons

  • r

applica1on to intervene Translated into all languages (pivot transla1on used where necessary)

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Legal Transla1on

  • Keenen (1978):

Languages are “efficient only in so far as they are imprecise”

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Legal Transla1on

  • Šarčević (2000):

“Bound to a par:cular legal system, each language

  • f law is a product of a specific history and culture”
  • Didier (1990):

“l’opéra:on de transfert d’un message juridique émis dans une langue et dans un système juridique vers une autre langue et un autre système juridique”

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Lawyer-Linguists:

a dual professional iden1ty

“…ok I’m a translator, but before that I am a lawyer. We must balance the two

  • somehow. It’s not easy…and

where do our responsibili1es really lie?” “It’s the perfect blend of lawyer and

  • translator. I would not wish to work

simply as [a] lawyer or just [as a]

  • translator. I enjoy the challenge of

two responsibil:es – to the language and to the law” “we must walk a 1ghtrope between law and language…”

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Some1mes it’s important to translate something very literally, because if you don’t the legal meaning may be lost

  • r ‘fudged’. This is oaen

difficult as I feel a responsibility to the language too. At 1mes I cringe inwardly because the transla1on seems so clunky. But the alterna1ve is beau1fully wriqen [transla1ons] which may cause confusion

  • legally. We have to choose between the

language and the law ul1mately.

Lawyer-Linguists:

a dual professional iden1ty

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Why should we care?

  • 1. Allows us to develop a full/more holis1c

understanding of EU law

  • 2. There’s more to the development of

jurisprudence/case law than what is necessarily intended by ‘courts’

  • 3. Supports the pluralist cons1tu1onal narra1ve