Article published in:
Terminology
Vol. 26:2 (2020) ► pp. 184–212

How do supranational terms transfer into national legal systems?

A corpus-informed study of EU English terminology in consumer protection directives and UK, Irish and Maltese transposing acts

| University of Warsaw
| Kozminski University
The objective of this paper is to analyse how European Union (EU) supranational terms related to consumer protection transfer into domestic legal systems of three English-language jurisdictions (the UK, Ireland and Malta) during the transposition of EU directives. Transposition is a process of incorporating EU directives into national law and capturing supranational terms during their entry into national legal systems. We adopt a mixed-method approach of corpus linguistics and legal analysis of terms, working with a corpus of five directives and their UK, Irish and Maltese transposing acts. Distinguishing between a term and a concept level, we propose a categorisation of transfer techniques arranged along a cline from foreignization to domestication. They involve imports, modifications (non-denominative and denominative variants), localisations and zero transfer both at the term level and the concept level.
Keywords: legal terms, supranational terms, autonomous legal concepts, EU terminology, transposition, directive
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Published online: 04 December 2020
https://doi.org/10.1075/term.00050.bie

Full-text

How do supranational terms transfer into national legal systems?
References

References

Abbamonte, Giuseppe
2007 “The Unfair Commercial Practices Directive and its General Prohibition.” In The regulation of unfair commercial practices under EC directive 2005/29: new rules and new techniques, vol. Studies of the Oxford Institute of European and Comparative Law, ed. by Stephen Weatherill and Ulf Bernitz, 11–31. Oxford: Hart.Google Scholar
Bajčić, Martina
2017 New Insights into the Semantics of Legal Concepts and the Legal Dictionary. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2018 “The Role of EU Legal English in Shaping EU Legal Culture.” International Journal of Language & Law (JLL) 7: 8–24. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Biel, Łucja
2014 Lost in the Eurofog. The Textual Fit of Translated Law. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Biel, Łucja, Agnieszka Biernacka, and Anna Jopek-Bosiacka
2018 “Collocations of Terms in EU Competition Law: a Corpus Analysis of EU English Collocations.” In Language and Law. The Role of Language and Translation in EU Competition Law, ed. by Silvia Marino, Łucja Biel, Martina Bajčić, and Vilelmini Sosoni, 249–274. Cham: Springer. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Biel, Łucja
2019 “Theoretical and methodological challenges in researching EU legal translation.” In Legal Translation. Current Issues and Challenges in Research, Methods and Applications, ed. by Ingrid Simonnæs and Marita Kristiansen, 25–39. Berlin: Frank&Timme.Google Scholar
Biel, Łucja, and Vilelmini Sosoni
2019 “EU legal culture and translation in the era of globalisation: the hybridisation of EU terminology on the example of competition law.” In Legal Linguistics beyond the borders: Language and Law in a World of Media, Globalisation and Social Conflicts. Relaunching the International Language and Law Association, ed. by Friedemann Vogel, 208–229. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot.Google Scholar
Binchy, William
2011 “The Irish Legal System: An Introduction.” Legal Information Management 2: 51–155.Google Scholar
Bradley, Kieran St C.
2017 “Legislating in the European Union.” In European Union Law. 2nd Edn., ed. by Catherine Barnard, and Steve Peers, 97–142. Oxford: Oxford University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Daille, Béatrice
2017 Term Variation in Specialised Corpora. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Directorate-General for Translation (DGT), European Commission
2016 Strategic plan 2016–2020. DG Translation. Ref. Ares(2016)1329034 – 16/03/201; https://​ec​.europa​.eu​/info​/sites​/info​/files​/strategic​-plan​-2016​-2020​-dg​-t​_march2016​_en​.pdf. Date of access 1 Aug. 2017.
Doczekalska, Agnieszka
2018 “Legal Languages in Contact: EU Legislative Drafting and Its Consequences for Judicial Interpretation.” In Language and Law. The Role of Language and Translation in EU Competition Law, ed. by Silvia Marino, Łucja Biel, Martina Bajčić, and Vilelmini Sosoni, 163–178. Cham: Springer. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Donnelly, Mary and Fidelma White
2014 Consumer Law: Rights and Regulation. Dublin: Round Hall.Google Scholar
Eriksson, Ida Otken and Ulf Öberg
2007 “The Unfair Commercial Practices Directive in Context.” In The regulation of unfair commercial practices under EC directive 2005/29: new rules and new techniques. Vol. Studies of the Oxford Institute of European and Comparative Law, ed. by Stephen Weatherill and Ulf Bernitz, 91–101. Oxford: Hart.Google Scholar
European Union
2015 Joint Practical Guide of the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission for persons involved in the drafting of European Union legislation. Luxemboug: Publications Office of the European Union.Google Scholar
Faber Benítez, Pamela, Márquez Linares, Carlos and Vega Expósito, Miguel
2005 “Framing Terminology: A Process-Oriented Approach.” Meta 50(4). CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Fairhurst, John
2007 Law of the European Union. 6th edn. Harlow: Pearson Longman.Google Scholar
Fischer, Márta
2010 “Language (policy), translation and terminology in the European Union.” In Terminology in Everyday Life, ed. by Marcel Thelen, and Frieda Steurs, 21–33. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Gillespie, A. and S. Weare
2017 The English Legal System, Oxford University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
General Secretariat of the Council of the EU
2010 Manual of Precedents for Acts Established Within the Council of the European Union. https://​publications​.europa​.eu​/en​/publication​-detail​/-​/publication​/431ccffd​-00c2​-491a​-b423​-ce709af0d6c3​/language​-en Accessed 1 Aug. 2018.
HM Government
2018 Transposition Guidance. How to implement European Directives effectively. https://​assets​.publishing​.service​.gov​.uk​/government​/uploads​/system​/uploads​/attachment​_data​/file​/682752​/eu​-transposition​-guidance​.pdf. Date of access 1 Jan. 2019.
Howells, Geraint
2017 “European consumer law.” In European Union Law. 2nd Edn., ed. by Catherine Barnard, and Steve Peers, 686–709. Oxford: Oxford University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Jakobsen, Roman
1959 “On linguistic aspects of translation.” In: On translation, edited by R. A. Brower, 232–239. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Kilgarriff, Adam et al.
2014 “The Sketch Engine: ten years on.” Lexicography 1: 7–36. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Kjær, Anne Lise
2007 “Legal translation in the European Union: A research field in need of a new approach.” In Language and the Law: International Outlooks, ed. by Krzysztof Kredens, and Stanisław Goźdź-Roszkowski, 69–95. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Kunkiel-Kryńska, Anna
2013 Metody harmonizacji prawa konsumenckiego w Unii Europejskiej i ich wpływ na procesy implementacyjne w państwach członkowskich. Warsaw: Wolter Kluwer.Google Scholar
McEnery, Tony, and Andrew Hardie
2012 Corpus Linguistics. Method, Theory and Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Mattila, Heikki E. S.
2013 Comparative Legal Linguistics. Language of Law, Latin and Modern Lingua Francas, 2nd Edn. (trans: C. Goddard). Aldershot: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Micallef, Paul Edgar
2013 “The Future of Consumer Law – the perspective from a small island state.” In The Yearbook of Consumer Law 2008, ed. by Christian Twigg-Flesner, Deborah Parry, Geraint Howells, Annette Nordhausen, 233–256. Aldershot: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Picht, Heribert and Jennifer Draskau
1985 Terminology: An introduction. Guildford: University of Surrey.Google Scholar
Pozzo, Barbara
2012 “English as a Legal Lingua Franca in the EU Multilingual Context.” In The Role of Legal Translation in Legal Harmonization, ed. by C. J. W. Baaij, 183–202. Alphen aan den Rijn: Kluwer Law International.Google Scholar
Prieto Ramos, Fernando
2014 “International and supranational law in translation: from multilingual lawmaking to adjudication.” The Translator 20 (3): 313–331. In The Role of Legal Translation in Legal Harmonization, ed. by C. J. W. Baaij, 83–107. Alphen aan den Rijn: Kluwer Law International.Google Scholar
Reilly, Nathan
2009 The Effects of the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive on Irish Law. Ph.D. thesis, Dublin.Google Scholar
Robertson, Colin
2015 “EU multilingual law: Interfaces of law, language and culture.” In Language and culture in EU Law. Multidisciplinary perspectives, ed. by Susan Šarčević, 33–52. Farnham: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Robinson, William
2017 “EU Legislation.” In Legislation in Europe. A Comprehensive Guide for Scholars and Practitioners, ed. by Ulrich Karpen, and Helen Xanthaki, 229–256. Oxford and Portland: Hart.Google Scholar
Sager, Juan C.
1990 A Practical Course in Terminology Processing. Amsterdam: John Benamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
1998 “Terminology: Theory.” In: Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies, ed. by Mona Baker, 258–262. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Šarčević, Susan
1997 New Approach to Legal Translation. The Hague: Kluwer Law International.Google Scholar
2012 “Coping with the Challenges of Legal Translation in Harmonization.” In The Role of Legal Translation in Legal Harmonization, ed. by C. J. W. Baaij, 83–107. Alphen aan den Rijn: Kluwer Law International.Google Scholar
Schulte-Nölke, Hans
2008 “From the Acquis Communautaire to the Common Frame of Reference – the Contribution of the Acquis Group to the DCFR.” Juridica International. Law Review, 14: 27–31.Google Scholar
Scott, Mike
2016 WordSmith Tools 7. Stroud: Lexical Analysis Software.Google Scholar
Temmerman, Rita
2018 “European Union multilingual primary term creation and the impact of its neologisms on national adaptations.” Parallèles 30(1): 8–20. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Twigg-Flesner, Christian
2007 “Consumer Sales Directive (99/44).” In Consumer Law Compedium – A Comparative Analysis, ed. by Hans Schulte-Nölke, Christian Twigg-Flesner, Martin Ebers, 646–712. Universitāt Bielefeld, http://​citeseerx​.ist​.psu​.edu​/viewdoc​/download​?doi​=10​.1​.1​.183​.3328​&rep​=rep1​&type​=pdf. Date of access 26 June 2019.
Whittaker, Sunniva
2014 “The harmonization of legal cultures, concepts and terms. Depth of harmonization and research design.” In Dynamics and Terminology: An interdisciplinary perspective on monolingual and multilingual culture-bound communication, ed. by Rita Temmerman, Marc Van Campenhoudt, 61–77. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Wilss, Wolfram
1994 “Translation as a Knowledge-Based Activity: Context, Culture, and Cognition.” In Language, Discourse and Translation in the West and Middle East, ed. by Robert de Beaugrande, Abdullah Shunnaq and Mohamed Helmy Heliel, 35–43. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Woods, Lorna, Philippa Watson, and Marios Costa
2017 Steiner & Woods EU Law. 13th Edn. Oxford: Oxford University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 1 other publications

Biel, Łucja & Dariusz Koźbiał
2020. How do translators handle (near-) synonymous legal terms? A mixed-genre parallel corpus study into the variation of EU English-Polish competition law terminology. Estudios de Traducción 10 ► pp. 69 ff. Crossref logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 27 april 2021. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.