ISSUES OF EQUIVALENCE IN LEGAL TERMINOLOGY

ABSTRACT

This project work sets out to identify and discuss issues of equivalence in legal terminology. Our goal was to identify possible methodologies of finding equivalence in French-English legal translation. We used a source text in French and the corresponding English translation which we have done as a case study. The source text is an extract from a report on the post electoral conflict in Ivory Coast entitled. “Rapport alternatif de la FIACAT et de l’ACAT Cote d’Ivoire en réponse aux rapports initial et périodiques cumulés du gouvernement ivoirien sur la mise en oeuvre de la charte africaine des droits de l’homme et des peuples.” The complexity of legal translation cannot be overemphasized considering the nuances in legal systems, legal families and cultural concepts of legal texts. Consequently, the two working languages of this project work being French and English are not exempted from this unavoidable complexity as the French Code Civil and the English Common law, are from two distinct legal families. By establishing these equivalents, we discovered that finding the appropriate equivalence in this domain will mostly depend on the nuances in these legal systems. Also, wrong equivalents in legal translations could subsequently lead to legal consequences since legal documents have the force of the law. Key Words: Legal terminology, Formal Equivalence, Functional Equivalence, Borrowing, Descriptive phrases