Discursive constraints in legal translation: a genre-based analytical framework

This chapter presents an overview of the main discursive constraints translators can come across when working with legal texts. A case study is presented on one of the most complex judicial genres, i.e. criminal judgments, in three legal systems (England and Wales, Spain and Italy). Perhaps the most important judicial decision, the judgment usually contains a compendium of the whole case and often encompasses excerpts of other legal documents produced during the proceedings, which makes it a particularly challenging text from the translator's viewpoint. A tripartite framework for the analysis is presented, which can be applied to any legal genre. More specifically, a genre-based, top-down approach is adopted with a view to identifying the main strategies and techniques that can be chosen during the translation process, also keeping in mind common law vs. civil law differences applied to criminal procedure in the background. After a brief introduction devoted to the notion of ‘constraint’ in legal translation studies, the chapter proposes a translation-oriented discursive framework for the analysis of the genre under examination (criminal judgment) based on the three classic van Dijkian categories: superstructure, macrostructure and microstructure. Constraints operating at each level are then scrutinised from a functional perspective and exemplified with cases of challenges (i.e. asymmetries) legal translators may have to face when mediating between different legal cultures and systems.