Les limites de l’équivalence dans la traduction juridique

Abstract

The limits of equivalence in legal translation  

It is obvious that the main specificity of legal texts is to refer to legal systems and forms of thought rooted in a culture specific to a particular country. The texts of law are the result of reflections of an ethical, philosophical, psychological, cultural and religious order and for this each concept has its own legal system which is based on founding texts such as the constitution for French and American law and the Koran. and the Sunna for the law of Muslim countries. Consequently, the translator will have to translate into the target language concepts and notions that often only exist in the source language. The present paper aims at shedding light on the processes adopted by translators when dealing with the translation of legal texts with its different domains. The translator presents the synthesis of the linguistic expression, of the law, that is to say a "jurilinguistics" at the confluence of the law and the language, because it is difficult to translate a legal document without knowing the law of the two languages as it is difficult for a lawyer to translate their text well without a perfect mastery and general knowledge of both languages.