| The dissertation focuses on the translations of legislative provisions from the perspective of memetics under the framework of legal communication. An introduction of the notion 'meme' to the analysis of legislative provisions reveals that legislative provisions can be deemed as memes. The translations of legislative provisions can thus be deemed as the products of memetic transmission between languages which follows the Dawkins' law of natural selection, i.e. the survival of the fittest. The study then explores on which grounds legal memes can be identified and concludes with the discussion on corresponding translation strategies. Data are chosen principally from Securities-related Rules, Codes and Ordinances in Hong Kong for the descriptive analysis from the perspective of memetics and statistical analysis is adopted as an auxiliary method in the study. It is expected that legal translation can be understood more clearly and thoroughly and legal memes can be consciously identified so that the normalization function of memes can be utilized for the selection of appropriate translation strategies under the framework of legal communication. |
