Language-bound terms—term-bound languages: the difficulties of translating a national civil code into a lingua franca

The present paper—taking the example of the English translation of the Hungarian Civil Code of 2013—aims to give an overview on the legal and terminology-related challenges and pitfalls that might occur during the process of translating a civil code with civil law traditions into the language of the common law world. An attempt is made to categorise terminology-related conceptual problems and elaborate how the different types of translation methods (functional equivalence, paraphrasing and neologism) could be applied; moreover, how a kind of legal-linguistic checks-and-balances can be achieved through the well-dosed combination, having also the ratio of similarities to differences (SD-ratio or SD-relationship) of legal concepts behind the respective terms in mind. Legal translators must act beyond the role of a simple translator: they must be comparatists, being aware of the legal origin of the relevant concepts and using the methods of comparative private law and translation studies at the same time, since both law and language are system-bound and are heavily influenced by the cultural and social environment. The authors strive to identify the significance of those problems (and possible solutions) from the perspective of how language-related aspects can perform some fine-tuning on the comparative methodology and findings, whether they are barriers only or provide also an opportunity to verify or refute prima facie comparative results. Comparative law—no doubt—supports legal translation, but their relationship is reciprocal: legal-linguistic subjects and problems emerging in the course of legal translation supply valuable feedback and further sources of inspiration.

     

The Paradox of American Critical Legalism

Duncan Kennedy's essay is a reprint from his recently published book. We hope to draw attention to Kennedy's work among students of European integration since we believe his analysis to be relevant both to the specific debate on the impact of European integration upon private law and to comparative legal study in general. European legal scholarship has only recently begun to examine the problems of private legal integration. The late appearance of private law in the integration arena is due to a primarily instrumental understanding and strategic use of law in the European market-building project: only once legal ‘barriers to trade’ were eliminated and national regulatory law replaced by Europeanised norms, did the degree to which the core institutions of ’private‘ law had been (indirectly) affected by the integrationist logic become apparent. Comparative legal research, however, has benefited from this awakening of interest. European Commission projects have widened the scope of and intensified comparative studies in Europe. Equally, experience gained from the ‘Integration Through (Public) Law’ project has led to a new private legal debate on the impact of national traditions, the concept of legal cultures and the social functions of private law. Accordingly, whilst Duncan Kennedy's deliberations on the history of American legal thought and the differences between American and European legal cultures are generally to be commended for their sensitive treatment of the specificities of the civil law system and the common law heritage, they are equally of particular topical concern since in addition to highlighting America's ‘utter faith and utter distrust in law,’ they also investigate the fundamentally different approaches adopted towards ‘the project law’ within each of the member states of the EU. If European private lawyers are to come to terms with the problems of integration and convergence, they must first tackle these deep-seated divergences between their own national legal cultures.     

文物返还问题的法律思考

文物流失既是一个历史遗留问题,又是一个严重的现实问题。追索海外流失文物一直为我国政府和民间所关注。按照国际公约和国内法的规定,战争时期移出的文物以及被盗和非法出口文物的返还可以根据不同情况采取公法解决方式和私法解决方式,但是由于公约适用的时间和空间范围的限制以及文物返还受制于国内法的规定,追索海外流失文物仍然存在着较大的法律障碍。     

Legal status of private universities in Nigeria

Education, they say, is the bedrock of development and progress. The quest for Nigeria to provide tertiary education for her teaming secondary school leavers made her change her initial reluctance to invite private initiatives to participate in the provision of tertiary education in the country. With the licensing of the first private university in about a decade ago, the number has increased to 61, thus surpassing the number established by either the Federal or the States governments. The existence of private universities is old enough to invite an appraisal of whether or not they have satisfied the yearnings of the public or the government that allowed their existence. It is also important to examine whether or not they have operated according to the traditions of university system. Our paper is to examine the legal status of private universities in Nigeria. The importance of the legal regime of any endeavour cannot be overemphasized. From our research, we have noted the shocking fact that no private university in Nigeria is established by law in accordance with the Education (National Minimum Standards and Establishment of Institutions) Act 2004. This has numerous legal implications as to ownership, control, autonomy, delivery of quality education, labour, legal personality, life perpetuity and a host of other legal matters. These issues are addressed and concrete suggestions made so that private participation in tertiary education in Nigeria will be a blessing and not a curse to the educational sector in the future.     

Translation as a Complex Inter-linguistic Discourse and its Current Problematic Practice in the Genre of Legal Fiction in China

In comparison with the creation of language, translation from one language to another offers greater challenges for those working with languages, be the text for translation concerned with philosophy, literature or law, all of which are arguably highly professional domains. When it comes to the translation of legal fiction, a highly interdisciplinary genre, even experienced practicing translators tend to fall short of being well equipped with sufficient legal knowledge and terminologies, not to mention the capacity to detect the subtleties that are inherent in a legal term. All of the problems above account for the often less-than-satisfactory quality of legal fiction in translation, misleading or confusing the potential target audience. After making the prior theoretical investigations, this paper attempts to analyze some problems in the current Chinese translation of such legal novels as Franz Kafka’s Der Prozess and Charles Dickens’s Bleak House, and then take a corrective stance, hoping to arouse the translators’ awareness of the importance of this genre, as well as their awareness of the essential professional skills they still need to acquire, so that they can reach equivalent accuracy in legal technicalities, as well as subtlety and nuance that reflect the legal spirit.     

市场化政府经济行为的法律规制

市场化政府经济行为是以实现政府经济社会职能为目的和内容、以市场行为为形式的政府经济行为,在目的、功能、手段、主体、意思表示、适用范围、法律适用上都有其特征,并在我国已有形态多样的实践,可以从多种角度进行归类分析。在现代市场经济体制中,它是市场弥补政府缺陷的主要形式,是市场与政府共生的典型状态,是经济民主的重要表现。为了协调该行为中市场行为与政府行为、政府公共性与自利性、政府主体利益目标与参与主体利益目标等诸多冲突,需要由多个法律部门对该行为作综合调整,并就其适用范围、主体、审查、合同、标准化、价格、竞争、税收、法律责任、争议处理等制度要素作出立法设计。     

国内法“战时”概念的法律界定

从各国国内法对＂战时＂这一概念的界定情况看,尽管各国由于文化传统、现实状况以及表述习惯等方面存在差异,决定了法律文本关于＂战时＂概念界定的表述有所不同,但这些界定所体现出的＂战时＂概念的法律意义、内涵特征与外延范围是基本一致的。我国＂战时＂概念的法律界定主要体现在《刑法》第451条中,其遵循了＂战时＂概念法律界定的一些基本要求,但同时也存在着一些明显的缺陷,应当按照依法合理界定、严格准确界定、便于实践操作的要求予以完善。     

Cutting Global Justice Down to Size? Rights,Vulnerabilities, Immunities,Communities

This article attempts to expand the scope of the project of global justice on one parameter but to circumscribe that project on three other parameters. It is argued that the difference of level of application as between individuals and collectives should be transcended in a ‘collective turn’. But this inclusiveness must be accompanied by an insistence on the distinction between a generic or intrinsic understanding of vulnerability on the one hand, and a contingent understanding of vulnerability on the other. Another distinction that must be observed is that between private and public entities. On both dimensions the latter option is to be preferred. Only the contingent vulnerabilities of public entities are of relevance to a practical program of global justice. It is also suggested that formal distinctions in entitlements should be observed. Hohfeld’s scheme is called upon in order to distinguish between claim-rights and immunities and to advocate for the latter as better reflecting the desiderata of global justice. Frequently presupposed connections between vulnerability and rights are thus brought into question. Finally, the proposed framework for global justice enables a novel articulation with, and an illumination of, the demands of equality. For that which is private in a legal sense is constituted by the clash of wills of individual legal persons. Public interests are always shared, thus connoting spheres of equality; understood in this way equality is the stuff of global justice.

     

Law-making functions of the Chinese courts: Judicial activism in a country of rapid social changes

The judicial production of law and the legislative production of law make a striking distinction between the two legal traditions. Despite of these differences, judges in both legal traditions in adjudicating cases have a common task, which is the application of legal rules to the facts of cases pending for judgments. The tension between the certainty and the “discretion” is universal for any legal system and, to a certain extent, it poses a hard dilemma for the rhetoric of rule of law. In the transitional countries such as China where rapid social changes and transformations take place, the judiciary and judges can not escape from taking more active roles in interpreting or even law making process. It arouses much controversy, particularly in continental legal traditions, for the judiciary is deemed to perform a mechanical role in adjudicating cases. This article intends to analyze the needs for judicial law-making function in China and its reasons. It reveals that judicial interpretation constitutes an important source of law despite its ambiguous legislative position. The article argues that judicial activism is inevitable against the transitional nature of current Chinese society.     

对国际私法调整对象和范围的重新认识

国际私法的调整对象和范围是国际私法作为独立法律部门的两根支柱 ,涉及到该学科体系的构架。从国际私法的独特功能角度来探讨 ,国际私法的调整对象应是在国际民商事交往中产生的 ,涉及两个或两个以上国家法律利益的民商事法律选择适用关系。涉外民事关系不是国际私法的调整对象 ,只是引起其调整对象的一种事实或原因。     

Legal Vices and Civic Virtue: Vice Crimes, Republicanism and the Corruption of Lawfulness

Vice crimes, crimes prohibited in part because they are viewed as morally corrupting, engage legal theorists because they reveal importantly contrasting views between liberals and virtue-centered theorists on the very limits of legitimate state action. Yet advocates and opponents alike focus on the role law can play in suppressing personal vice; the role of law is seen as suppressing licentiousness, sloth, greed etc. The most powerful advocates of the position that the law must nurture good character often draw on Aristotelian theories of virtue to ground the connection between law and virtue. While Aristotle believed that law and character were linked, it is ironic to note that he did not argue for the position evidenced in our vice laws that law was likely to succeed in instilling virtue. Indeed, Aristotle thought the project of using law to instill private virtue was nearly certain to fail. Aristotle’s deep concern was not for the way law protected private virtue within each person but the way law had to protect civic virtue between citizens. This article argues that even from its foundations, the project of vice crimes as moral instruction is misconceived. The use of law for overly instrumental or narrow reasons opens law and legal institutions to abuse and factionalism. Lawyers, judges and others specially connected to law must first and foremost aim at addressing “legal vices,” vices internal to the institutions of law. Particularly, increasing factionalism and instrumentalism which disconnects law from the pursuit of the common good threatens our civic bonds. Most importantly, where civic bonds are disrupted, citizens have no reason to remain law abiding. The striking lesson, captured both in ancient philosophy and modern history, is that when legal vices grow unchecked and factions use the law to pursue narrow interests, ultimately law abidingness is corrupted and interest groups harm themselves as much as others.     

Legal Translation and Cultural Transfer: A Framework for Translating the Common Law into Chinese in Hong Kong

It is widely held in translation studies that translation proper is not merely a process of linguistic transfer but also of cultural transfer. But how cultural transfer is effected or whether it can be effected is not at all clear. The study begins with a critical analysis of the problems relating to law translation in general and translating the common law into Chinese in particular. It then examines the nature of cultural transfer in law translation with special reference to the translation of common law terminology. The study purports to set out the framework for legal translation as cultural transfer, in particular, for translating the common law into Chinese in Hong Kong. It argues that successful transfer of the legal culture of foreign laws always requires the adjustment of translating language and the employment of metalanguage.     

Comparative Law for Legal Translation: Through Multiple Perspectives to Multidimensional Knowledge

With this paper, I suggest a multiperspectivist approach for assessing conceptual legal knowledge with relevance for the translation of legal terms in translation between two or more different legal systems. The basic quest is to present a set of categories and analytical approaches for legal translators to generate (collect) and classify knowledge necessary for their professional conceptual needs. In this paper, I will focus on the translational, juridical, and cognitive basics of such an approach. In order to cope with the broad range of possible translational purposes in different translational situations and choose relevantly between alternative formulations, translators need methods and strategies in order to construct the necessary conceptual knowledge. This presupposes a broad knowledge structured in ways that enable the translator to recognize relevant characteristics of legal systems and relevant differences between different legal systems. Concerning translational theory, the basis is the functional theory of translation as adapted to legal translation, based upon the idea of translation as choice between alternatives and distinguishing between documentary translation, at one end of a scale, and instrumental translation, at the other. This basis and the distinction presuppose relevant knowledge from comparative law. Hence, existing approaches and fundamental tenets concerning comparative law inside and outside of translation are presented. In order for knowledge to be presented in a manageable way with relevance to translators, I work with the approach of concept frames as basic unit of knowledge gathering and categorization. This way of presenting knowledge is embedded more generally in a knowledge communication approach, focusing on knowledge asymmetry. Within this general framework, the multiperspectivist approach combines insights from cultural studies (especially the study of law-as-culture), law as a disciplinary social system, and communicative interaction generating meanings in legal communication, also across national borders.

     

The European Democratic Challenge: The Forging of a Supranational Volonté Générale

This article explores in a systematic manner the different components of the democratic legitimacy of the Union from the standpoint of deliberative democratic theory. Contrary to standard accounts, it is claimed that the democratic deficit must be disaggregated, given that the Union has not only several shortcomings, but also some democratic surpluses. On the one hand, the Union was created to tackle the democratic deficit of nation states, and has been partially successful in mending the mismatch between the scope of application of their legal systems and the geographical reach of the consequences of legal decisions. Moreover, the European legal order is based on a synthetic constitutional law, which reflects the common constitutional traditions of the Member States, which lend democratic legitimacy to the whole European legal order. On the other hand, the lack of a democratically written and ratified constitution is a central part of the democratic challenge of the Union. But equally important is the structural bias in favour of certain material legal results, which stems from the interplay of the division of competences and the plurality of law-making procedures.     

论行政法的自由意志理念——法律下的行政自由裁量、参与及合意

私法中的契约自由以自由意志为核心 ,它蕴含着对具有自由意志的人的尊重。现代行政法同样也应服膺于这种尊重人的理念 ,因而契约自由精神完全可以在行政法中得到延展。就行政主体而言 ,自由意志体现在其自由裁量权的行使及其限制上 ;对行政相对人来说 ,其自由意志主要表现为行政参与的自由 ;行政主体与行政相对人自由意志的存在以及双方的互动与沟通 ,使行政过程中的合意得以形成。我们提倡通过合意来处理行政事务、解决行政纷争 ,但也应合理地界定行政合意的边界     

The Missing View of the Cathedral: The Private Law Paradigm of European Legal Integration

The traditional partition between public and private law continues to reinforce the belief that public law is the only proper realm of political debate, where decisions having redistributional consequences are and should be taken. This allows for a seemingly minor role of private law in the debate on European integration. This article challenges such a traditional image by noticing the central role of private law in the several legal systems of the European Union, and by analysing a few instances of resistance to private law integration. The analysis suggests that, while fully engaged in debating the public law implications of integration, Member States strive to keep civil adjudication within their control and to protect the self–contained, autonomous structure of their codes (or sets of private law doctrines) from the disruptive impact of European legislation. Integrationist pressures compel national legal actors to make explicit the social and economic choices underlying private law rules. Against such pressures, States' resistance may take the shape of formalist entrenchment.     

指导性案例的法源意义与确认路径——以最高人民法院公布的私法性指导性案例为研究对象

《最高人民法院关于案例指导工作的规定》确立了我国案例指导制度,由于该规定相关内容的模糊性,产生了两个需要回答的问题,一是指导性案例与英美法系判例法是否存在相同的裁判逻辑与法律效力,进而指导性案例是否具有法源意义;二是指导性案例的功能是对法官自由裁量权的控制,还是应该重视从法解释学层面去理解。建议以民法解释学为视角对最高人民法院公布的私法性指导性案例进行梳理和剖析,明确私法性指导性案例具有确认和发现法规则的功能和价值。从"法与法律区别"的自然法观视角,认为私法性指导性案例所确认和发现的法规则在我国当代具有私法法源意义。最后,从解释论和立法论两个方面,提出私法性指导性案例确认和发现的法规则的法源地位确认路径和具体建议。     

税收法律行为初论

与税收法律关系同样都为税法学的基本范畴 ,但税收法律行为的研究在传统税法学理论中却付之阙如 ,本文即对此作出了探索性的研究。本文首先界定了税收法律行为的概念 ,并确定了其较为重要的种类划分 ;然后 ,通过对税收法律行为与行政法律行为以及私法法律行为之间关系的分析 ,明确了税收法律行为的公、私法交融的性质特征 ,并着重以契约行为为例加以进一步的说明 ;最终 ,将税收法律行为与税法上的事实行为一起 ,初步构建了税法上行为的体系。     

两大法系中的不方便法院原则及在中国的合理借鉴

一般认为不方便法院原则起源于苏格兰,并在英美法系国家得到了广泛的运用和发展。然而,大陆法系的主要国家和地区也存在着这一制度或类似的制度和做法,这些类似的制度或做法同样体现了不方便法院原则的核心和实质精神:法官的自由裁量权和有利于实现当事人的利益及个案的公正。在中国,立法中过度管辖的存在和互联网立法的缺乏使得不方便法院原则的引入存在必要性,相关法律制度的配套和司法实践又使得该原则的引入存在着可能性。应当结合有关的法律传统和司法特点,设计出适合中国的不方便法院原则。     

对赌协议的法律构造与定性观察

对赌协议虽有赌博的字眼与表征,但与零和博弈的赌博存在本质的分歧与泾渭分明的界限。对赌协议是私法上财产自我估值机制的一种形式,是私募股权投资中常用的估值调整机制。作为一种金融创新工具,即可降低投资方的代理成本,又可降低融资方的融资成本。对赌协议作为一种非典型合同,与附生效条件合同貌合神离,可归结为射幸合同,在我国现行法律框架下,私募股权投资中对赌协议的运行不存在任何合法性障碍。