The Duty of Information as Criterion of Acceptability in Legal Translations of Web Pages

Abstract

In this article we focus on the English-Spanish combination and we examine the legal content of web pages translated into Spanish so as to pinpoint their conceptual, stylistic and terminological features. We are especially interested in studying the spread of new legal concepts and forms of writing, and in discussing the acceptability of translations that do not respect the genius of the target language and thus go beyond the hybridity or interference that characterises all translation (Toury, 1995; Monzó 2002, 2005; Borja, 2005). Thus, we examine the issue of how translations more oriented to the source text are received or interpreted within the target legal system. In order to illustrate this claim we present, as parallel texts, some examples of translations of digital documents into Catalan. Given that Catalan and Spanish share the same legal system and therefore the same conceptual base; differences of a linguistic nature in the translations provide an opportunity to determine whether fidelity to the source text is compatible with the duty of information to receivers. The aim of this paper is to show that translations of legal content on websites do not take into account the legal framework of the target culture, which in turn could lead to problems of interpretation, or at least comprehension, on the part of the final receiver