Comments On The English Verison Of The Contract Law Of The People's Republic Of China

With the trend of economic globalization and China's access to WTO, more communication and cooperation have been carried on between China and other countries in the world in such fields as politics, economy, culture and law. As the communication grows in respect of legal business between China and foreign countries, we need to borrow experience from our peers and techniques in overseas countries. On the other hand, we also need to introduce our legislative development to the world so as to bring China in line with the international customary practice and further strengthen democracy and the legal system and also perfect our socialist market economy. Therefore, the translation of legal document should be given priority.The Contract Law of the People's Republic of China (hereinafter referred to briefly as"the Law") was adopted at the Second Session of the Ninth National People's Congress on March 15, 1999, and came into force as of October 1, 1999. It has greatly marked significance as it symbolizes the end of the circumstance that the Economic Contract Law, the Foreign Economic Contract Law and the Technical Contract Law existed together. No doubt, the English version of the Law would be a key point.In the process of writing this thesis, the author has had a better understanding of the legislative background and relevant knowledge of the Law. At the same time, the author finished reading scores of books on translation and forensic linguistics as well as those books of laws and regulations both in English and Chinese so as to summarize the sameness and difference of legal English. Based on reading the English version of the Law published by China Legal System Publishing House in 1999, the author summarized the language features and the defects of the English version in order to keep the advantages and avoid the defects in the later revision.The thesis firstly introduces some background knowledge and main contents of the Law. Meanwhile, it also mentions the significance of English translation of the Law. Then it reviews some typical translation theories and legal translation in China. On a basis of a discussion on stylistic and linguistic features of the English version of the Law, the thesis concentrates primarily upon the demerits found in the English version of the Law. Based on lexical and grammatical aspects, the author makes some comments and analysis on the English translation of the Law. Through the analyses upon the English version of the Law, the author has come to see the urgency to improve the translation quality of legal documents in China and sincerely hopes to make contribution to the field of legal translation.