Translators’ and revisers’ competences in legal translation
Revision foci in prototypical scenarios
This article proposes a hierarchy of translator and reviser competences in prototypical scenarios in legal
translation with a view to determining the most appropriate revision foci to ensure translation quality. Built on a prior
characterisation of the most common professional translator profiles in legal translation, the proposal for a hierarchy of
competences derives from two premises: (1) The professional profile of those who translate and revise legal documents is very
diverse in terms of competence and qualifications (training and experience), and (2) translation competence and specialist
knowledge in legal fields (i.e., domain competence) are fundamental when revising to guarantee the quality of legal translations.
The proposal is framed by quality assurance in legal translation through a revision process based on (1) the coherent management
of the work of the translators and revisers involved in the translation project, and (2) the appropriate methodology for revision
applied to legal translation by adapting the revision mode’s focus to ensure its effectiveness. Six common scenarios are
identified in light of the translators’ profiles, for which revisers’ profiles are then proposed in order to detect any legal
translation competence deficiencies among translators, and thus ensure quality.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction: Why do we need a hierarchy of translator and reviser competences in legal translation?
- 2.Theoretical framework
- 2.1Legal translation competence
- 2.2Quality assurance in LT
- 2.3Translation revision effectiveness for quality assurance in LT
- 3.Designing the hierarchy of translator and reviser competences
- 3.1First phase: Characterisation of professional profiles in LT
- 3.2Second phase: Analysis of legal translator profiles and job contents
- 3.3Third phase: Adaptation of revision modes to LT
- 4.Proposal of a hierarchy of translator and reviser competences in prototypical LT scenarios
- 5.Conclusions
- Acknowledgements
- Notes
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References