The Object of Fidelity in Translating Multilingual Legislation

Abstract

Should fidelity in legal translation be judged in terms of approximation to the source text? What are the possible alternatives? Multilingual jurisdictions see great needs in the translation of texts of the law and tend to be particularly concerned with the uniform application of the law in its different renditions. As a response to new sources of legal indeterminacy created by legal multilingualism, approaches to statutory interpretation in multilingual jurisdictions have shifted in focus. Through analyzing the way linguistic indeterminacy in legislation is resolved in various multilingual jurisdictions, I argue that an understanding of approaches to statutory interpretation can help translators better grasp the nature of the legislative texts they are dealing with and potentially illuminate strategies of legal translation.