Legal translation

What are the differences between legal and literary translation?
Literary translation is a field where there is a lot more emphasis on the flow and feel of a piece of text. This often means that the text will be in an active voice, rather than the passive voice of legal translations. While they might be similar in complexity, legal translations and law-based scholarly writings have a lot more specialist terminology and must be presented a certain way.
What are the differences between legal translations and technical translations?
Technical translation is another specialist field within translation services. In order to give a proper translation of a technical text, there are more specific terms that a translator must know, usually terms related to the field of the document, whether that is engineering, chemistry, medicine, or another discipline. Technical translation is similar to legal translation, but the knowledge needed is different.
What skills do legal translators need to have?
Now that we know what makes legal translation work different, we can look at what a legal translator needs to know.


Is legal knowledge beneficial for legal translators?
Yes, legal knowledge is very useful for anyone wanting to work in legal translation. A translator with knowledge of legal systems will be more likely to translate a document properly since they will know a lot of the specialist terminologies used in the documents. However, it is not a simple case of understanding one region’s laws. It is important for a translator to understand the two legal systems of the two languages they are translating between – this might mean knowing legal English and Islamic law, or a different pair – but whatever the pair is, a translator needs to have a lot of knowledge about the legal concepts and official language in both countries.


What is translation theory and why do legal translators need it?
Translation theory is useful for any translator to know in order to make sure they make an accurate translation. It means knowing how best to translate things from a source language into a target language, including how to deal with any unique features of the language or any aspects of translation are that culture-dependent.
What languages do legal translators need to know?
A legal translator needs to know the source language and target language well. Typically, the target language will be their native language, while they should know the source language fluently. They will also need to know all the legal language used for legal matters.
Conclusion
Legal translation is simply turning a target text into a translated text, but what makes legal translation different is the specialist terminology that is found within the legal field. A professional translator with legal translation expertise is the person best placed to handle legal translations to avoid legal or financial complications. The legal field relies on specifics and accuracy, so experience in the legal field is needed for the translation of legal documents.