Genre analysis has become one of the major influences on the current practices in the teaching and learning of languages. In this paper Vijay K. Bhatia would like to extend these areas of application to demonstrate the use of genre theory to the teaching and learning of translation. The author does this in four sections: the first section highlights some of the complexities of translation process, especially in legal contexts. The second section characterizes some of the major characteristic features of genre theory which have serious implications for the theory and practice of translation. The third section discusses some of the characteristic features of legislative writing which need special treatment in translation work. The final section illustrates how a genre-based framework can be utilized to maintain generic integrity in translation work, taking examples from intra-lingual legislative translations.