Legal Translation
Nowadays in Ukraine translators are guided by the standards ISO 9000 – 9003 that contain general recommendations for translation of professional texts and evaluation of their accuracy and do not provide any specific rules or procedures. For example, positions at the language division of the European Court on Human Rights are held by professional lawyers. Besides, there are other urgent problems in the sphere of legal translation, such as: the lack of translators having legal education (most translators are philologists); the lack of regular training for translators taking into account the field of translation and its purpose; the lack of textbooks, guidelines, and teaching aids on legal translation, and the lack of practice for legal translation professionals. This, in turn, causes such problems of unprofessional legal translation as:
- Unfavorable legal consequences for individuals and legal entities whose rights or duties were translated unduly or incorrectly;
- Bringing the translator to legal or administrative liability;
- Misunderstanding of certain professional discourse etc.
In this regard, we should refer to German standards of translation, particularly DIN 2345, and the European standard DIN EN 15038. These standards stipulate requirements to the professional competences of translator and sources of information the translator shall use to guarantee accuracy of translation. These standards also motivate the client to understand the complexity of professional translation and bind him/her to provide the translator with all necessary additional information which is not included to general references.