THE LEGAL TRANSLATION AS SEEN BY THE ECONOMIST

The aim of the article is to illustrate the issues of translation into law, compared with the lack of legal translators. Several examples in the field of litigation are given.

Legal translation and confidentiality

The first relates to what was the highly publicized infringement lawsuit brought by Louboutin against Yves Saint-Laurent. Louboutin argued that YSL was infringing its rights by donating its pumps with a red sole, Louboutin's historic distinctive sign. Although both companies are French, the trial was held in U.S. courts. The Economist points out at the outset that the problems solved by the legal translation in this case far exceeded those that can be expected at first sight. More than just translating English into French.

It is also the transcription of very different legal concepts and cultures, all in the context of a high-profile trial and heightened media attention. The U.S. principle of discovery has been a particular problem. It is the right of one party to request any useful document from the other party. This principle is almost unknown in French law (the head office of the two company is in France), which on the other hand emphasizes the protection of privacy. To overcome this difficulty, a translation process had to be established to ensure the confidentiality of information provided by companies, which could include the names of junior employees.

The central role of the legal translator

The second example of legal wrangling, more quickly mentioned, concerns the no less media lawsuit - concerning here also intellectual property - Against Samsung. Between the American giant and the Korean giant, two opposing cultures and billions of dollars at stake. In another example, when Panasonic wanted to buy one of its Japanese competitors, the U.S. competition authority asked to consult an impressive amount of documents, legal or not, to give effect to the agreement on U.S. soil. The Economist ends up pointing out that the existence of computer-assisted machine translation techniques is still far from guaranteeing a satisfactory result. Although such systems can of course be used, the use of a professional legal translator is necessary to obtain a legal translation that can be trusted.

On all these cases, the legal translators of the selected translation agency worked in direct collaboration with the parties' lawyers. You can find a few other comments on this article at this address.