This article investigates the differences between the Italian translations of European
Union (EU) directives and the Italian used in national laws. It focuses on the lexical
features of comparable and parallel corpora and their mutual influence. Differences
emerge in terms of both lexical richness (greater in national laws) and register (also
higher in national texts). Moreover, the specific text-structure of EU directives is signalled
by a greater number of connectors. Lexical differences also involve repeated
segments: national laws show greater variation, whereas the segments used in EU
directives are more specific. In terms of style, features used at national level impact
on the Italian translations of EU texts. For example, in parallel corpora, the style of
Italian texts is more formal than the style of their English counterparts. This shows
that Italian translators of EU directives are heavily influenced by the stylistic choices
made when drafting national laws. So it is Italian law-makers who need to relinquish
stylistically marked features when drafting legal texts. Then, translators can follow
suit. The opposite would be – of course – unimaginable.
