Abstracts
Abstract
This paper advocates the adoption of a plain language approach in the translation of judgments. The front-line objective is to gradually develop among legal practitioners the consciousness of using Chinese as a legal language, whether it is for judgment writing or for use as the trial language. While the pilot project on the translation of case law launched by the Subcommittee on the Translation of Case Precedents was a good attempt to boost the translation incentive, it exposed a number of problems in legal translation as yet unsolved. This paper explores potential solutions to these problems, including studying the syntactic differences between English and Chinese, the employment of common Chinese usages, and the application of legal knowledge, among others. This paper argues that legal bilingualism in courts will not be fully achieved if the problems of writing or understanding judgments persist.
Keywords/Mots-clés:
- Hong Kong,
- judgments,
- syntactic differences,
- common usages,
- legal knowledge
Résumé
Cet article préconise l’adoption d’une approche en langue quotidienne dans la traduction de jugements. L’objectif premier est de développer graduellement parmi les juristes la conscience d’utiliser le chinois comme langue juridique, que ce soit pour la rédaction de jugements ou pour les procès. Le projet pilote de la traduction du droit mis en place par le sous-comité de la traduction des cas de juridiction a été une bonne tentative de donner l’élan voulu, il a mis en relief un grand nombre de problèmes juridiques à résoudre. Cet article examine les solutions potentielles de ces problèmes, et notamment l’utilisation des usages généraux du chinois. Si on ne règle pas les problèmes de la rédaction et de la compréhension des jugements, le bilinguisme juridique devant les tribunaux ne sera pas un vrai succès.
Appendices
References
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