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Legal translation and legal survivals

The Polish–English translation of post‑communist property law terms aided by comparative law

ORCiD logo with link | University of the National Education Commission, Kraków
Published online: 21 August 2026
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/target.24106.kus
Abstract
This study explores the relevance of the concept of legal survivals, proposed by the legal scholar Rafał Mańko, for legal translation purposes. The concept of legal survivals, in parallel to the well-known notion of legal transplants, problematises a specific aspect of legal continuity, namely the continued existence of certain units of legal culture despite transformations of a given jurisdiction’s legal system. Translating texts relating to such institutions raises difficult questions for legal translators, who need to consider the legal and/or terminological changes to establish acceptable equivalents. This article uses the translational comparative legal analysis framework to investigate the usefulness of Mańko’s theory for legal translation through three case studies of the Polish–English translation of property law terms. The research shows that the legal survivals theory may be useful in helping translators better comprehend the not-always-parallel paths of legal terminology and legal institutions and encouraging a kind of ‘legal genealogy’.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Why are legal survivals special?
  • 3.Translational comparative legal analysis
  • 4.Polish–English translation of terms referring to selected legal survivals
    • 4.1Macrocomparative analysis
    • 4.2Mesocomparative analysis
    • 4.3Microcomparative analysis
      • 4.3.1Rzecz będąca przedmiotem własności państwowej ‘thing owned by the State’ (Article 228 of the Civil Code)
      • 4.3.2Społeczno-gospodarcze przeznaczenie ‘socio-economic purpose’
      • 4.3.3Spółdzielcze własnościowe prawo do lokalu ‘ownership-like right to premises in a cooperative’
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
References (93)
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