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Comparative Legal Translation: Chinese Law and EU Law

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New Advances in Legal Translation and Interpreting

Part of the book series: New Frontiers in Translation Studies ((NFTS))

Abstract

Legal translation plays a significant role for Chinese law to form self-expression under the global legal pluralism. The launch of the “Belt and Road Initiative” and other comparable strategies necessitates an efficient dissemination of Chinese legal discourse. Chinese law translation is more than just a linguistic exchange; it is an interchange with common law, civil law, or Islamic law; so, Chinese law should communicate new notions freely and considerately. This article finds that EU institutions have been attempting to create a new discourse of EU law, with legal translation playing an essential role. It employs both “familiarization” and “exteriorization” translation strategies to strengthen the formulation and regional recognition of EU law. Comparatively, the translation of Chinese law can benefit from this in order to express legal discourse with Chinese characteristics when combined with a context-oriented translation technique.

This is an updated version of the author’s article in Chinese published in Foreign Languages and Their Teaching (No. 6, 2020, pp. 22–31).

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Chinese law, for the purpose of this paper, generally refers to Chinese legal system.

  2. 2.

    Animal Sci. Prods. v. China Nat'l Metals & Minerals Imp. & Exp. Corp., 702 F. Supp. 2d 320, 279–280, 314–315.

  3. 3.

    Ibid.

  4. 4.

    In re Vitamin C Antitrust Litig., 584 F. Supp. 2d 546, 549.

  5. 5.

    In translation studies, domestication and foreignization are analogous to familiarization and exteriorization herein, respectively. The author is required to explain that in legal translation, familiarization refers to being entirely close to the target language, while exteriorization refers to completely departing from the target language.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. East China University of Political Science and Law, Shanghai, China

    Li Wan

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  1. Li Wan
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Correspondence to Li Wan .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Translation Studies, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies (GDUFS), Guangzhou, China

    Junfeng Zhao

  2. Translation Studies, University of Macau, Macao, China

    Defeng Li

  3. University of Macau, Macao, China

    Victoria Lai Cheng Lei

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Wan, L. (2023). Comparative Legal Translation: Chinese Law and EU Law. In: Zhao, J., Li, D., Lei, V.L.C. (eds) New Advances in Legal Translation and Interpreting. New Frontiers in Translation Studies. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-9422-7_3

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