Tools for improving quality in legal translation: the LAW10n project Carmen Bestue and Mariana Orozco Qualetra Launch Conference London, April 4th 2013.

Presentación del tema: "Tools for improving quality in legal translation: the LAW10n project Carmen Bestue and Mariana Orozco Qualetra Launch Conference London, April 4th 2013."— Transcripción de la presentación:

1 Tools for improving quality in legal translation: the LAW10n project Carmen Bestue and Mariana Orozco Qualetra Launch Conference London, April 4th 2013

2 QUALETRA JUST/2011/JPEN/AG/2975 With financial support from the Criminal Justice Programme of the European Commission Directorate General Justice This publication has been produced with the financial support of the Criminal Justice Support Programme of the European Union. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of the authors and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Commission.

3 LAW10n Project Localisation of technology law Funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (FFI2010-22019) Researchers: Olga Torres Hostench (UAB, principal researcher) Carmen Bestué Salinas (UAB) Mariana Orozco Jutorán (UAB) Fernando Prieto Ramos (Université de Geneve) Pilar Cid Leal (UAB) Adelina Gómez González-Jover (Universidad de Alicante) Elina Lagoudaki (Imperial College London) Roberto Mayoral Asensio (Universidad de Granada) Ramon Piqué (UAB)

4

5 Main goal Create a tool in which the translator, for each entry, finds legal, terminological and translational information that enables him/her to make informed decisions.

6 Legal transplant without harmonisation in terminology Spain Merchantability England and Wales Satisfactory quality England and Wales Satisfactory quality France UN CISG, 1980 Fit for the purposes UN CISG, 1980 Fit for the purposes EC Directive 1999/44 Consumer sales Fit for purposes EC Directive 1999/44 Consumer sales Fit for purposes Not uniform solution ? ? ? ? ….

7 1980 - United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) Art. 35.Except where the parties have agreed otherwise, the goods do not conform with the contract unless they: (a)Are fit for the purposes for which goods of the same description would ordinarily be used European Legislation, 1999/44 CE Directive on the sale of consumer goods EnglishFrenchSpanish Article 2 Conformity with the contract (c) are fit for the purposes for which goods of the same type are normally used; (d) show the quality and performance which are normal in goods of the same type and which the consumer can reasonably expect, given the nature of the goods and taking into account any public statements on the specific characteristics of the goods made about them by the seller, the producer or his representative, particularly in advertising or on labelling. Article 2 Conformité au contrat c) s'il est propre aux usages auxquels servent habituellement les biens du même type; d) s'il présente la qualité et les prestations habituelles d'un bien de même type auxquelles le consommateur peut raisonnablement s'attendre, eu égard à la nature du bien et, le cas échéant, compte tenu des déclarations publiques faites sur les caractéristiques concrètes du bien par le vendeur, par le producteur ou par son représentant, notamment dans la publicité ou l'étiquetage. Artículo 2 Conformidad con el contrato c) son aptos para los usos a que ordinariamente se destinen bienes del mismo tipo; d) presentan la calidad y las prestaciones habituales de un bien del mismo tipo que el consumidor puede fundadamente esperar, habida cuenta de la naturaleza del bien y, en su caso, de las declaraciones públicas sobre las características concretas de los bienes hechas por el vendedor, el productor o su representante, en particular en la publicidad o el etiquetado. Transplant of legal concepts I

8 Domestic law English lawFrench lawSpanish law (1)Except as provided by this section and section 15 below and subject to any other enactment, there is no implied [F1term] about the quality or fitness for any particular purpose of goods supplied under a contract of sale. [F2(2)Where the seller sells goods in the course of a business, there is an implied term that the goods supplied under the contract are of satisfactory quality. (2A)For the purposes of this Act, goods are of satisfactory quality if they meet the standard that a reasonable person would regard as satisfactory, taking account of any description of the goods, the price (if relevant) and all the other relevant circumstances. (2B)For the purposes of this Act, the quality of goods includes their state and condition and the following (among others) are in appropriate cases aspects of the quality of goods— (a)fitness for all the purposes for which goods of the kind in question are commonly supplied, (b)appearance and finish, (c)freedom from minor defects, (d)safety, and (e)durability. Pour être conforme au contrat, le bien doit : 1° Etre propre à l'usage habituellement attendu d'un bien semblable et, le cas échéant : - présenter les qualités qu'un acheteur peut légitimement attendre eu égard aux déclarations publiques faites par le vendeur, par le producteur ou par son représentant, notamment dans la publicité ou l'étiquetage ; Artículo 116. Conformidad de los productos con el contrato. 1. Salvo prueba en contrario, se entenderá que los productos son conformes con el contrato siempre que cumplan todos los requisitos que se expresan a continuación, salvo que por las circunstancias del caso alguno de ellos no resulte aplicable: a. Sean aptos para los usos a que ordinariamente se destinen los productos del mismo tipo. Presenten la calidad y prestaciones habituales de un producto del mismo tipo que el consumidor y usuario pueda fundadamente esperar, habida cuenta de la naturaleza del producto y, en su caso, de las declaraciones públicas sobre las características concretas de los productos hechas por el vendedor, el productor o su representante, en particular en la publicidad o en el etiquetado el producto. Transplant of legal concepts II

9 Concepts and legal terminology Merchantable quality Meaning not implied condition of any particular grade or standard Term Jurisdiction 1995 - Today Other Common law countries Merchantability Meaning kind and quality average Merchantable quality Satisfactory quality US UCC US UCC England &Wales 1893 - 1995

10 Copyright Broadening of meaning Negative conception Cultural change Common Law Trade marks Patents Distinctive signs Field of application Licenses Civil Law Transplant Software licenses End user license agreements

11 Functions of the target text The source text is the contract Document translation Instrument translation Source Text Target text To inform Interpretation Target text Source Text The target text is the contract

12 Document translation ≠ literal translation Document translation = faithful translation Source textTarget text 11. General Provisions. If any part of this agreement is found void and unenforceable, it will not affect the validity of the balance of this agreement, which will remain valid and enforceable according to its terms. This agreement may only be modified in writing, signed by an authorized officer of Adobe. The English version of this agreement will be the version used when interpreting or construing this agreement. This is the entire agreement between Adobe and Customer relating to the Software and it supersedes any prior representations, discussions, undertakings, communications, or advertising relating to the Software 11. Disposiciones generales. Si se determina que cualquier parte de este contrato es nula y no exigible, lo anterior no afectar á a la validez del resto del contrato, que ser á v á lido y exigible de conformidad con sus t é rminos. Este contrato s ó lo se podr á modificar mediante un escrito firmado por un representante autorizado de Adobe. La versi ó n en ingl é s de este contrato ser á la versi ó n utilizada para interpretar este contrato. É ste es el contrato completo entre Adobe y el Cliente en relaci ó n con el Software y reemplaza cualquier representaci ó n, discusi ó n, tarea, comunicaci ó n o publicidad anterior relacionada con el Software. 2.1.7.2 For clarification and without limitation, the foregoing does not permit Customer to install or access (either directly or through commands, data, or instructions) the Software: 2.1.7.2 Como aclaraci ó n y sin limitaci ó n, lo anterior no permite al Cliente instalar o acceder (ya sea directamente o mediante comandos, datos o instrucciones) al Software:

13 Instrument translation  Treatment of textual elements  To avoid redundant expressions “this is a legally binding contract between you…”  Impositions from the law of the source culture  What to do with clauses that are in contradiction with the target law, i.e. warranty terms.  Translation of cultural bound terms that doesn’t exist in the target legal culture. 13 Carmen Bestué

14 14 Textual elements

15 Carmen Bestué 15 Cultural bound terms

16 Who translates legal documents? Freelance translators (non specialists) Legal translators Lawyers Localisers (in technology law, such as EULAs)

17 Which information resources do they have? Legal translators have a myriad of legal resources available Legal translators and lawyers search on the Internet for glossaries, reference texts, parallel documents and forums. The quality of legal translations has improved dramatically since the introduction of the Internet as an information source. However, it has not made easier translator’s work.

18 Review of current e-resources for legal translation 1. Online legal dictionaries and glossaries: 2. Open multilingual terminology databases: IATE, UNTERM, IMF… ProsCons Easy to use Most are free - Good quality dictionaries are expensive and difficult to access. / - Best legal dictionaries are still printed. - No legal advice given. - Limited to terminology. ProsCons Large, free. *TermWiki Limited to the legal context of international institutions. Do not contain much legal terminology for technology law.

19 Review of current e-resources for legal translation 3. Privately owned terminology databases: SDL Multiterm, TermStar, EvoTerm… 4. Translation memories MemoQ, SDL Trados, Across, Transit, Déjà Vu, OmegaT… ProsCons Accurate Customized for specific projects Privately owned Limited to personal experience Fed only by the translator or the client Limited in size ProsCons Reuse of translations. *MyMemory translated.net *TransSearch Authority questionable No legal comments or translation advice

20 Review of current e-resources for legal translation 5. Search engines:Google, Ask.com, Bing // Law Crawler, Legalengine.com 6. Translators Forums: Proz.com (KudoZ), Wordreference, Yahoo groups ProsCons Exhaustive Show frequency of use. Authentic contexts. Useful to check names. Relevancy of results. Monolingual results. Authority questionable. ProsCons Direct contact with legal terms users and experts *KudoZ Authority questionable Normally limited to terminology, no explanation of legal context.

21 Review of current e-resources for legal translation 7. Legal ontologies: LOIS, JurWordNet, LRI-Core… 8. Corpora (legal and general): JRC-Acquis, Linguee.es, Juris text corpus, ICE-GB… ProsCons Pr ovide conceptual information Not user-friendly Developed by jurists, not translators Incomplete In law, parallel mapping is difficult to carry out ProsCons User friendlyMost are monolingual or multilingual, but not parallel No translation advice missing

22 Review of current e-resources for legal translation 9. Legal databases: Lexis, Westlaw, CELEX, EUR-Lex… 10. Digital legal libraries ProsCons Accurate and exhaustive. User-friendly Original resources. Many legal systems are poorly represented. No translation advice. ProsCons Law Guru.com, FindLaw, Library of Congress Thomas, The British Academy Digital Library Cornell University Law Library… Incomplete Mostly in USA No translation advice.

23 However… An analysis of an extensive corpus of EULAs translated from English into Spanish shows that all these resources are not helping to significantly improve the quality of legal translations

24 Example: term “merchantability” Context: implied warranty of merchantability Definition: A warranty that the property is fit for the ordinary purposes for which it is used. [Black’s Law Dictionary]

25 Merchantability in the English, French and Spanish legal systems English into English: USA “merchantability” vs. European “satisfactory quality” (different legal systems as has been explained) English into French and Spanish: non- existent legal term in legal target culture

26 “Merchantability” in French Concept qui participe du principe de: Vices cachés: « le vendeur est tenu de la garantie à raison des défauts cachés de la chose vendue qui la rendent impropre à l'usage auquel on la destine, ou qui diminuent tellement cet usage, que l'acheteur ne l'aurait pas acquise, ou n'en aurait donné qu'un moindre prix, s'il les avait connus » (art. 1641Cc.) Non-conformité: Il existe quatre cas pour lesquelles un produit acheté est considéré comme non conforme (arts. 211-4 à 211-14C.consom.) : – S’il ne correspond pas à l’usage qui peut en être habituellement attendu ; – S’il ne correspond pas à la description donnée par le vendeur ; – S’il ne possède pas les qualités publiquement présentées par le vendeur ou le producteur, notamment dans la publicité ou l’étiquetage – S’il ne présente pas les qualités recherchées par l’acheteur, connues du vendeur et acceptées par lui.

27 “Merchantability” in Spanish Concepto de idoneidad de los bienes para el fin propuesto o pactado o conformidad de los bienes. [art. 116 de RDL 1/2007] Artículo 116. Conformidad de los bienes con el contrato. 1. Salvo prueba en contrario, se entenderá que los bienes son conformes con el contrato siempre que cumplan todos los requisitos que se expresan a continuación, salvo que por las circunstancias del caso alguno de ellos no resulte aplicable: a) Se ajusten a la descripción realizada por el vendedor y posean las cualidades del bien que el vendedor haya presentado al consumidor en forma de muestra o modelo. b) Sean aptos para los usos a que ordinariamente se destinen los bienes del mismo tipo. c) Sean aptos para cualquier uso especial requerido por el consumidor cuando lo haya puesto en conocimiento del vendedor en el momento de celebración del contrato, siempre que éste haya admitido que el bien es apto para dicho uso.

28 “Merchantability” in Spanish Monolingual legal dictionaries: inexistent term Bilingual English-Spanish legal dictionaries: comerciabilidad, condición de poder ser comercializado; mercancías aptas para el comercio. [Diccionario de términos jurídicos de Alcaraz y Hughes, Diccionario de comercio internacional de Alcaraz y Castro, Diccionario jurídico español/inglés de Cabanellas de las Cuevas] (hybrid terms that do not exist in the target culture)

29 Multilingual open data bases: IATE

30 Privately own terminology databases: Microsoft language portal

31

32 Example of target-oriented equivalent: G. NO OTHER WARRANTIES. THE LIMITED WARRANTY IS THE ONLY DIRECT WARRANTY FROM MICROSOFT. MICROSOFT GIVES NO OTHER EXPRESS WARRANTIES, GUARANTEES OR CONDITIONS. WHERE ALLOWED BY YOUR LOCAL LAWS, MICROSOFT EXCLUDES IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. If your local laws give you any implied warranties, guarantees or conditions, despite this exclusion, your remedies are described in the Remedy for Breach of Warranty clause above, to the extent permitted by your local laws. EXCLUSIÓN DE OTRAS GARANTÍAS. LA GARANTÍA LIMITADA CONSTITUYE LA ÚNICA GARANTÍA DIRECTA DE MICROSOFT. MICROSOFT NO OTORGA NINGUNA OTRA GARANTÍA NI CONDICIÓN EXPLÍCITAS. EN LA MEDIDA EN QUE ASÍ LO PERMITA LA LEGISLACIÓN DE SU ESTADO O PAÍS, MICROSOFT EXCLUYE LAS GARANTÍAS IMPLÍCITAS DE IDONEIDAD PARA UNA FINALIDAD GENERAL O PARTICULAR Y AUSENCIA DE INFRACCIÓN. Si la legislación de su estado o país le otorga garantías o condiciones implícitas a pesar de lo previsto en esta cláusula de exclusión, los recursos de los que dispondrá ….

33 General corpora: Linguee

34 Translator’s forums: Proz

35 Result: EULAs translations into Spanish (general corpus)

36 Translations into Spanish (restricted EULAs corpus) 60%: comerciabilidad 20%: comercialización 20%: a more target - oriented formulation

37 What is the translation process and how can we help improve it? Research, consisting of questionnaires and interviews given to translators of EULAs (large, medium-sized and small companies, freelancers and lawyers) in order to define the process Carried out in 2010 in Spain and England

38 Legal department of a software development company Sales department of a software development company Software distributor or reseller Translation department of the software development company Possible intermediary 3 Multilingual services provider (translation company in charge of the localisation of the whole software pack in which EULAs in several languages are included) The project manager prepares the work packs for the translators, including the licenses to be translated, translation memories and terminological databases. Local language service provider. The project manager or coordinator provides the translation brief and distributes the work among in-house or freelance translators. Possible intermediary 2 Possible intermediary 1 CLIENT

39 In-house or freelance translator working for a translation company. Legal translator, software localiser or general translator. Usual process: the translator receives the source text, a translation memory (in some cases) terminological databases or glossaries (in some cases) and uses his/her habitual resources to produce a target text; in case of any doubts about the translation brief, the translator asks the client or the project manager/coordinator. Quality control of language use and terminology is usually carried out by intermediaries 1, 2 or 3. READER/USER In some cases, the legal department of the software company of the target country is consulted. The final text gets to the final reader (the user that will sign the EULA) through the intermediaries. Possible legal advice Quality assurance TRANSLATOR

40

41

42

43

44

45

46 Conclusions It is not enough to use the best resources currently available to solve terminological problems in legal translation. The “translation record” (created by LAW10) provides translators with the information necessary to enable informed decisions to be made within the framework of any translation brief. Principles of comparative law should be included when developing multilingual or bilingual lexicographical or terminographical resources for translation between different legal systems. Consultation with experts in the specialist field to which the source text belongs should be routine practice when translating legal texts

47 Thank you Carmen.Bestue@uab.cat Mariana.Orozco@uab.cat Carmen.Bestue@uab.cat Mariana.Orozco@uab.cat