official translation of legal texts that is divided into separate subgroups depending on the institutional and/or legal/court process of the translated texts in the civil legal system and in particular into: a) translation of legislative and legal acts (legislation and sub-legislation); b) translation of agreements (contracts, inter-state agreements etc); c) sworn translation (of official documents, e.g. official registration documents, powers of attorney, wills, single-language contracts, corporate documents etc); sworn translation carried out in court under oath (interpreting and translation);
Legal Translations
On the translation services market, the term legal translation" is mainly used in the strict sense – as the translation of official or court documents.
In law and in public management, the term "legal translation" involves various sectors that are heterogeneous with regard to their specific nature and functions.
The Ukrainian researchers of legal translation, V. Karaban and I. Rud, given the types of legal texts and their corresponding difficulty in translation, distinguish the following types of legal translation:
1) translation of laws and regulatory acts;
2) translation of contracts;
3) translation of international agreements;
4) translation of agreements;
5) translation of court rulings and memorandums;
6) translation of apostilles and notary certification;
7) translation of corporate documents for legal entities;
8) translation of individuals’ documents (passports, birth, marriage, divorce certificates, criminal record certificates, residency certificates);
9) translation of powers of attorney etc.;
10) translation of scientific works;
11) translation of documents regarding arbitration disputes and international rights;
12) translation of documents regarding the evaluation of assets and non-property rights;
13) translation of permits and applications for copyright;
14) translation of wills and documents concerning the transfer of rights;
15) translation of various types of certificates;
16) translation of insurance documents etc. [Карабан В. І., Рудь І. А. До теорії англо-українського юридичного перекладу/ Карабан В. І., Рудь І. А. // Мови та культури у новій Європі: контакти і самобутність. Збірник наукових праць. – Київ, Видавничий дім Дмитра Бураго, 2009. – С. 369 – 374.]
This type of legal and court texts is divided into two large groups by Olena Shabliy, Ukrainian researcher of legal translation theory and practice:
non-official translation of legal texts in order to inform the recipient of the translation about legal theory and practice overseas. This concerns the so-called secondary legal literature (philosophical-legal and exclusively legal articles and literature). In this type of legal translation, the strategies, methods and procedures of various types of legal translation are combined [Шаблій О. [Шаблій О. методологія, проблеми, перспективи: [монографія] / О. А. Шаблій. – Ніжин: Видавець ПП Лисенко М. М., 2012. – С. 8-9].
The translation agency “INTEREXPERT“ in Milan offers official and non-official translations of legal texts.
Our corporate clients often use the following services when carrying out their activities:
translation of articles of association,
translation of ordinary and extraordinary assembly meeting minutes,
translation of corporate documents,
translation of powers of attorney,
translation of chamber of commerce certificates,
translation of contracts;
Foreign individuals also contact us on a regular basis for the translation of civil status certificates (birth, divorce, residency, family status, citizenship certificates), criminal record certificates, and when buying real estate, also require the translation of notary sales/purchase documents and notary powers of attorney.
The terminology used in these documents is usually traditional and standardised. Our translators have been working with this type of documents for years and known their particular nature and terms well. When translating various types of legal texts,our translators take two important factors into consideration:
destination of the document in the original and overseas legal system and
translation rules for the corresponding type of legislative text.
The exact representation of the information is important, as is the suitable depiction of the pragmatics of the corresponding texts.
When a company is established, amendments are made to a company’s articles of association, or a power of attorney is issued for various powers (in Italy), if one of the partners is foreign and does not speak Italian, often not only a written translation of the document is required but also the presence of the translator during the signing by the notary. This service can only be provided by the expert translator registered in the Court list of translators and resident in Italy, otherwise this document may not be recognised as being valid. Apart from the presence of the professional expert translator during the signing of such documents, an independent witness must also be present – a person who speaks both Italian and the respective foreign language and is resident in Italy.
Apart from real estate sales contracts, the most requested type of translation of contracts is for the sale of products and/or services, agency contracts, exclusive or non-exclusive distribution contracts, and in most cases this type of translation does not require swearing. These contracts are normally written in two languages and it is indicated which version will take precedence over the other for the parties in the event of a dispute, and are signed by appointed representatives of the parties. Depending on the legislation of various countries, these contracts may require or not registration with the competent authorities.