Reconceptualizing Legal Translation: Navigating Cultural Transfer and Ethical Tensions between Domestication and Foreignization
Mohamed Hamza Merabet – Universidad de Malaga (España) y Universidad Larbi Ben M’hidi (Argelia) - ORCID: 0009-0007-7433-319X
Nicolas Roser Nebot – Universidad de Málaga - ORCID: 0000-0002-4732-4366
Abstract
The study analyzes the complex interrelationship among language, culture, and legal systems in the translation of legal discourse. With the enrichment of translation theory beyond the linguistic sphere, cultural transfer has dominated as the primary issue, more so in the area of specialized communication, wherein legal texts require precision, cultural appropriateness, and legal equivalence. The translator acts as a mediator along three interdependent axes: language, legal systems, and culture. There are ongoing controversies between domesticating the text to bring it culturally closer to the target audience and foreignizing it to preserve the source culture intact. This paper studies these opposing views within the ethical framework and real constraints that legal translators work in and points to an indefinite and rather tumultuous present between fidelity from the original and accessibility for the target reader. Special attention is paid to Malcolm Harvey's categorization of legal translation interventions, which offer a useful framework for balancing these demands and effective cultural transfer.
Keyword: Legal translation
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