Research On The Translation Equivalence Of Legal Terminology

Legal terminology is strictly normative and standardized,where the similarity of concept may not necessarily refer to the consistency of legal function in subject,object or procedure.Thus,it is essential to emphasize the equivalence of language function and legal function equally.The specific requirement imposes challenges characteristic of legal terminology translation.Therefore,this report is based on translation of Shanghai Municipality regulations.For research methods,it will use quantitative method with certain corpus-based qualitative method to support translation analysis.This report divides the legal terminology into two categories,the first as general legal terminology(concepts shared or similar in civil law countries)and the second as system-bound terminology(concepts characteristic of the Chinese legal system),and aims to investigate the translation from the perspective of language and legal function.This report concludes that the principle for legal translation shall be “legal function first”.For general legal terminology,the translation may borrow similar concepts from other law systems but shall emphasize the difference of legal function and may use annotation where necessary to further illustrate;while for system-bound terminology,the translation shall emphasize the comprehensive legal function and may use paraphrase to communicate every element of law.Considering that legal translation is of great significance for promotion of China’s legal system and rule of law,and conducive to construction of China’s international investment and business environment,thus,as the basis of legal translation,translation equivalence of legal terminology shall be investigated in this report to provide referential patterns.