Legal Translation in Context ― Professional Issues and Prospects

What does it take to be a legal translator? What is expected of legal translation professionals in the public and private sectors? Following recent developments in the field, there is a need to take stock of professional settings, skills and related training needs. This volume offers a systematic overview of the diverse professional profiles within legal translation and the wide range of communicative situations in which legal translators play their roles as mediators. Contexts of professional practice have been classified into three main categories, which give shape to the three parts of the book: (1) legal translation in the private sector; (2) legal translation for national public institutions; and (3) legal translation at international organizations. Practical concerns within each of these settings are analysed by experts of diverse backgrounds, including several heads of institutional translation teams. Commonalities and differences between contexts are identified as a means of gaining a comprehensive understanding of this multifaceted and dynamically changing profession.

Anabel Borja Albi is Head of the Translation Department at Jaume I University, Spain, where she teaches legal translation and co-ordinates research in the field of legal translation, genre analysis and expert knowledge management systems for specialized translation. As sworn official translator appointed by the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, she has also worked as an in-house and freelance translator.
Fernando Prieto Ramos is Professor of Translation and Co-Director of the Translation Department at the University of Geneva’s Faculty of Translation and Interpreting, where he teaches legal and economic translation at postgraduate level. The author of numerous publications, he also has extensive experience as a sworn translator, an in-house translator at the World Trade Organization and a freelance translator for other organizations.