The Interpreter and Translator Trainer

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Step-by-step approach to teaching legal translation: the

case of understanding English legal texts

Ondřej Klabal

To cite this article: Ondřej Klabal (2024) Step-by-step approach to teaching legal translation:
the case of understanding English legal texts, The Interpreter and Translator Trainer, 18:2,
212-229, DOI: 10.1080/1750399X.2024.2345559

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THE INTERPRETER AND TRANSLATOR TRAINER
2024, VOL. 18, NO. 2, 212–229
https://doi.org/10.1080/1750399X.2024.2345559

Step-by-step approach to teaching legal translation: the case

of understanding English legal texts
Ondřej Klabal
Department of English and American Studies, Palacký University Olomouc, Olomouc, Czech Republic

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

This paper is based within the framework of step-by-step approach to Received 2 January 2023
teaching legal translation. The underlying philosophy behind this Accepted 17 April 2024
approach is that when specific aspects of legal translations are KEYWORDS
tackled in isolation and trainees become aware of the pitfalls involved Legal translation training;
and the possible solutions, this helps them in further training as well legal text interpretation;
as in their professional practice. Drawing on this assumption, this legal meaning;
paper introduces a case study dealing with understanding and inter­ understanding
pretation of English legal texts from the classroom perspective. The
paper presents a number of problems that pose difficulties to trai­
nees and proposes exercises to help them overcome such problems
in a systematic way. Although this paper uses Czech as a target
language, the exercises can be adapted to teach legal translation
from English into other target languages. The issues have been
selected based on the author’s experience with addressing recurring
problems faced by legal translation trainees. Such issues include
understanding complex sentences showing all-inclusiveness and
syntactic discontinuities, legal cross-referencing expressions (e.g. sub­
ject to and without prejudice to) or conjunctions whose meaning may
not be transparent (e.g. provided, however, that).

1. Introduction
There is a general consensus that legal translation requires ‘special skills, knowledge and
experience on the part of the translator . . . ’ (Cao 2007, 3). While experience is something that
cannot be taught, skills and knowledge can, and should, be addressed in a legal translation
classroom. The greater the competences, experience, and knowledge of translators, the easier
the decision-making process – which is at the heart of translation – will be (Way 2014, 141).
There is also a broad consensus about the specificity of legal translation within translation
studies and the need for specific, structured approaches to decision-making, competence
development and training in this area (see Cao 2014; Prieto Ramos 2014).1
In terms of the teaching methodology applied in this study (i.e. the approach as
defined by Jack and Rodgers 2014, 20–21), the exercises we will propose are anchored
in constructivist approaches to translator training (see Kiraly 2010) emphasising the
authenticity of the material used2 and the collaboration of the learners. Where

CONTACT Ondřej Klabal [email protected]

© 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any med­
ium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article
has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.
 THE INTERPRETER AND TRANSLATOR TRAINER 213

appropriate, the exercises are conceived as pair work or group work exercises, with the
teacher only serving as a guide who facilitates learning. The approach thus fosters the
collaborative knowledge building of learners and teachers. In many of the exercises, the
role of the teacher is to provide scaffolding since, as Way (2014, 139) notes, ‘scaffolding
and classifying problems and processes enables students to progressively acquire the
necessary skills to justify their decisions . . . by basing their decisions on a particular
subcompetence skill . . . ’.
An issue that could be raised about the proposed approach is the lack of the big picture
that is typical of holistic approaches to translator training as reflected e.g. in project-
based or situated learning (cf. e.g. Biel 2011; Lisowska 2019). The underlying assumption
behind our proposal is, however, that when the subcompetences or skills are identified as
a challenge for a particular trainee or a group of trainees, and they are addressed and
practiced in isolation, trainees will have a better chance to employ the actual skill than
when addressing the issue as soon as it appears in a legal translation assignment (e.g.
Klabal 2018 on the use of shall). In other words, the approach outlined in this paper is not
contradictory to the holistic methods and principles of situated learning, but rather
complementary to them, and aims to provide trainers with materials that may be used
to address specific problem areas in the classroom.
One of the major challenges that legal translators and legal translation trainees face is
understanding legal texts and piercing their seemingly impenetrable language in many
cases. As Almlund (2000, 83) puts it, ‘problems of text comprehension are obstacles to the
unexperienced or semi-professional translator’. The problem is not, however, merely the
legal jargon and terminology, since once terms are identified, their meaning can be
established e.g. by comparative conceptual analysis. What causes more problems is the
structure and the reasoning that must also be understood, as well as typical intertextual
and interdiscursive devices, which, as Bhatia (1998) argues, create specific problems in
their construction, interpretation, and use. Any understanding is conditioned by legal
knowledge that makes it possible to arrive at a legal interpretation of what was expressed
in the source text (ST) (cf. Falzoi 2003, 103).

2. Interpretation of legal texts

Both in translation and in law, interpretation may be defined in several ways. In law, it
may be defined as a process of giving meaning to a legal rule (cf. Tomášek 1991, 148) or
an activity whose purpose is ‘to ascribe the meaning to, or inscribe the meaning in, the
text’ (Phillips 2003, 90).
Given the importance of interpretation in law, it has been addressed by many authors.
As noted by Chromá (2014, 38), the interpretation rules are also system-bound, and may
thus differ between legal systems. In the Czech context, for example, legal interpretation
methods have been discussed in relation to legal translation by Tomášek (2003) and
Škrlantová (2005). However, as mentioned by Djovčoš (2008, 24), time constraints do not
usually enable the translator to carry out such an in-depth analysis of a legal text as may
be required for legal interpretation.
Tomášek (1991, 147) makes a distinction between two major types of interpretation:
grammatical (semantic) and logical. He claims (1991, 149) that whereas the former is
useful for the interpretation of concepts (and is therefore more closely related to
214 O. KLABAL

comparative conceptual analysis), the latter is to be used for the interpretation of legal
rules, and by extension, legal texts. It is precisely logical interpretation that will be
addressed in some of the exercises presented here. For her part, Chromá (2008, 2009,
2014) makes a distinction between semantic and legal interpretation. She defines seman­
tic interpretation (2009, 30) as assigning the meanings to words ‘which [are] considered
to be the most “usual” or a meaning regardless of context’, while legal interpretation
involves considering the context when looking for adequate meaning.

2.1. Interpretation and legal translation competence

The definition of legal competence by Šarčević (1997, 113) makes an explicit reference to
‘full understanding of legal reasoning and the ability to solve legal problems, to analyse
legal texts, and to foresee how a text will be interpreted and applied by courts’. Of the
legal translation competence models, the model developed by Piecychna (2013) – which
is hermeneutical in nature – includes the ability to interpret and analyse a text as part of
the psychological, thematic, and textual sub-competences, but, rather surprisingly, not as
part of the linguistic sub-competence. On the contrary, Soriano Barabino (2016, 148)
includes ‘the ability to understand texts written in legalese’ as part of communicative or
textual competence. It can be argued that it is not only texts written in legalese that pose
a challenge, since any legal text – however plainly drafted it may be – can pose a challenge
for understanding. The use of legalese is rather an added challenge.
How much interpretation must be carried out by a legal translator is, however, often
disputed. Martínez Carrasco (2019, 275) notes that the requirement postulated by
Piecychna (i.e. to be able to interpret the text as a lawyer) is in contradiction to the
opinions of Šarčević (1997, 91), or Cao (2014, 109), who claim that a legal translator
should be able to grasp legal meaning as intended by the original drafters but refrain from
interpreting the text in the legal sense.3 On the other hand, Joseph (1995, 33–34) argues
that translators should interpret the legal text rather than ‘merely translate [it]’ and
proposes that translators should make stylistic, semantic, and intellectual interventions
in the text to the extent that is necessary. These views are only seemingly in conflict since
the term interpretation may be understood in a number of ways. Chromá (2009, 2014)
stresses the importance of interpretation in legal translation, which has a twofold role.
First, there is the interpretation of the legal text by the legal translator, and second, there
is the interpretation of the target text by its recipients. According to Chromá (2009, 29),
there are objective and subjective factors that condition the interpretation by the trans­
lator and its result. The objective factors comprise the quality of the drafting and clarity of
the ST and its topic and textual genre, while the translator’s competence, with all its sub-
competences, represents the subjective factor. What is required of translators in this
respect are both semantic and legal interpretation skills, which – as Chromá (2009, 29)
believes – are part of the subjective factors, or grounded understanding. This term was
introduced by Stolze (2011), who argues that it may prevent some issues of misinterpre­
tation in translational reading (2011, 114).
The question is how deep the reading of a legal text by a legal translator must be, and
what legal interpretation skills, and thus training, legal translators need. For example,
Puig (2017, 888) argues that the reading of a translator must be deeper than usual
reading. According to Northcott and Brown (2006, 374) translators should ‘learn to
 THE INTERPRETER AND TRANSLATOR TRAINER 215

think like lawyers in order to understand legal texts’, which is a call for training in legal
reasoning. Chromá (2008, 301) argues that the most important part of legal translation is
to understand the text fully because only such full understanding makes it possible to
transfer the information into the target language (TL) precisely and comprehensibly.
Similarly, Prieto Ramos (2011, 13) argues that legal translators need to ‘acquire sufficient
legal knowledge in order to situate the documents in their legal and procedural context,
as well as to grasp the effects of the original and the target text’. Chromá’s focus stays
mainly with the interpretation of terms and lexical items, which may be challenging as
a result of their polysemy, conceptual incongruity, etc. Terminological issues have been
extensively dealt with in legal translation studies, including from the training perspective
(e.g. Janigová 2023; Klabal 2022; Soriano Barabino 2016). This paper focuses on the
interpretation (and understanding) of other components of legal texts, which has not
received as much attention so far.

2.2. Interpretation as part of the legal translation process

Interpretation is included in most models of the legal translation process. Chromá (2014,
29) identifies five stages of the process, as shown in Figure 1. The distinction between
decoding and interpretation as two separate stages clearly indicates that the understand­
ing of a legal text by a legal translator must go deeper. The difference between under­
standing and interpretation has been addressed by a number of authors. Šarčević (1997,
92) sees understanding as an automatic cognitive operation, while interpretation starts
only once the reader needs to think about the meaning of a text caused by ambiguity or
other interpretative problems. Ortega Arjonilla (1996) identifies three stages of the legal
translation process: (1) semasiological, (2) interpretation, and (3) onomasiological. As
the diagram below shows, legal translation involves interpretation and a legal translator
may only translate into the TL as much as they are able to interpret in the source text, or,
as Stolze (2011, 74) puts it, ‘translators will never translate other than what they have
understood beforehand, what is now cognitively present in their mind’. In a way,
interlingual legal translation involves an intralingual translation in Jakobson’s terms
(cf. Chromá 2011, 32), which is the first but also the key stage of the process.

translator´s processing • adapting the translated message

to the purpose of translation

• the source language (code)

• 2. encoding the interpreted final message to be
• immediate linguistic and wider message to the target language
• 1. decoding and interpreting the conveyed to the
discoursive context
source language message ultimate adressee
including its contexts

message of the original

addresser

Figure 1. The legal translation process (Chromá 2011, 34).

216 O. KLABAL

First semantic level SL sign translation TL sign

interpretation interpretation

Second semantic level SL sign meaning ~ TL sign meaning

Figure 2. The translation process (Tomášek 1991, 149).

Yet another model of interpretation applicable to legal translation was introduced by

Tomášek (1991, 148–149) and it is depicted in Figure 2. In his model of the legal
translation process, the translator should use legal metalanguage to compare the meaning
of the legal rules in the source and target languages and legal systems. In other words,
Tomášek argues (1991, 148) that proper legal translation should involve both an inter­
semiotic translation (i.e. translation from one sign system into another, i.e. from Czech
into English and vice versa) and an intrasemiotic translation (i.e. ‘translation’ within legal
language from the first semantic level to the second semantic level), which corresponds to
the process of interpretation.4

3. Exercises to develop understanding and interpretation

This paper presents a series of exercises aimed at making trainees familiar with some of the
issues that legal translators face when it comes to understanding and interpreting legal texts
drafted in English.5 Chromá (2008, 309) argues that when interpreting a legal text, the
translator will try to identify the most likely meaning which can be transferred into the TL.
In line with Djovčoš (2008, 25), it is believed that if legal translators become familiar with at
least the most frequent interpretative issues in legal translation, such steps could later be
performed unconsciously.
An added difficulty that translators working with English face is the abundance of
source texts drafted in English by non-native speakers, which is a result of the role of
English as the lingua franca of legal communication. This has numerous implications,
e.g. the use of terminology that is not native in English – which is traditionally a language
of common law – as discussed by e.g. Kocbek (2005), and the use of non-native
structures, as well as frequent interference with the native language of the drafter.
Therefore, the exercises in this paper involve not only authentic English texts drafted
by native speakers, but also texts drafted by Czech lawyers/translators in English, as well
as by speakers of German, Dutch, etc.
Many of the exercises in this paper will involve reformulation, or simplification,
which has been promoted by a number of authors (e.g. Sparer 1988) as a guarantee
of understanding since only what has been understood can be reformulated (cf.
Falzoi 2003, 106).6 In essence, the approach corresponds to intralingual translation
as discussed above.
Table 1 shows an overview of the exercises proposed in this paper together with the
objective of each exercise and its recommended classroom use. Pair work or group work is
suggested for exercises when the trainees themselves can be expected to arrive at relevant
 THE INTERPRETER AND TRANSLATOR TRAINER 217

Table 1. Overview of exercises proposed.

Exercise
No. Exercise Objective Exercise Type
1 To raise trainees’ awareness of the syntactical complexity of English legal texts Individual exercise
and check their understanding.
2 To provide trainees with tools to analyse syntactically complex legal texts, and to Pair work/group work
learn strategies to reformulate the texts.
3 To raise trainees’ awareness of the function of cross-referencing devices in Individual exercise
English legal texts and their meaning.
4 To raise trainees’ awareness of the use and meaning of complex prepositions in Individual exercise
English legal texts and provide them with tools for reformulation using simpler
language.
5 To raise trainees’ awareness of the meaning(s) of provided that in English legal Pair work/group work
texts and provide them with strategies for reformulation.
6 To raise trainees’ awareness of the role of interpretation provisions in contract Pair work
and show them how the metalanguage used in such provisions needs to be
treated in translation.
7 To raise trainees’ awareness of the multiple meanings of deem in English legal Pair work/group work
texts, provide them with strategies to understand the correct meaning and
choose the translation equivalent.

conclusions with the teacher only serving as a facilitator, whereas individual exercises are
proposed for more challenging tasks where the trainees are encouraged to engage in self-
reflection, but the follow-up discussion is more effective in-class under the teacher’s
supervision.7

3.1. Exercise 1: understanding a legal text

This exercise aims to test the trainees’ understanding, or, more precisely, holistic pre-
understanding. Stolze (2011, 82) argues that it is only once a text is understood holi­
stically that it is possible to go back to the text level to find certain words or sentences
which had induced the understanding. The understanding must be content-oriented (cf.
Stolze 2011, 105), with the semantic and stylistic aspects being more important than
syntax, grammar, and pragmatics. The question that must be constantly asked by the
translator is ‘What is the text saying?’. A sample task is provided in Figure 3.

3.2. Exercise 2: dissecting complex syntax

Complex sentence structures are a typical feature of legal language in general, and English
legal language in particular, with sentences showing ‘considerable complexity and length’
(Cao 2007, 21). The complexity is given both by a high number of qualifications and
frequent syntactic discontinuities (cf. Bhatia 1993, 110–113). Very often, it is difficult for
trainees to identify the basic structure,8 but structural interpretation of a text genre is –
according to Bhatia (1993, 29) – important since it highlights the cognitive aspects of
language organisation. When trainees learn to cope with the structural organisation of legal
texts, it will help them in translation jobs they may be assigned in the future since specialist
writers tend to organise the genres in a fairly consistent way (cf. Bhatia 1993, 29).
By way of introduction to the analysis of complex legal sentences, trainees are
presented with the sentence from the previous exercise and its atomisation, with different
218 O. KLABAL

TASK: Trainees are asked to read the English sentence below and answer multiple-choice
questions in their TL. The multiple-choice items offer nuanced alternatives as to what the
parties actually agreed on, what the legal effects of “set-off” are, and when the
contribution will be deemed to be settled.
In this case, the text comprehension multiple-choice questions included, for
instance, the following:
1) What was agreed by the parties?
a) The Purchase Price will be paid by set-off.
b) The Parties will deal with any further receivables after the set-off.
c) The Parties rule out any increases in the value of the Contribution.
2) What is the Buyer entitled to?
a) To an additional increase in the value of the Contribution.
b) To exercise an option.
c) To receive Contribution before the set-off.
If (1) the Buyer’s Option is exercised and (2) the Purchase Price paid by set-off
pursuant to this provision, the Parties explicitly agree that as of the time of set-off of (i)
the receivable for payment of the Purchase Price against (ii) the receivable for repayment
of the Contribution, the Parties will be mutually settled as regards the repayment of the
Contribution and, in this respect, it is agreed that in that case, the Buyer shall not have
the right to any increase in the value of the Contribution, other than an increase in the
value of the Contribution (I) to which the Buyer has already become entitled or (ii) that
has already been paid for in conformity with Art. VIII. hereof.

Figure 3. Sample task for Exercise 1.

structural elements highlighted in different colours. This example is then used to discuss
how trainees should proceed when translating the sentence into their TL. This is followed
by a series of exercises in which trainees are asked to perform such dissection themselves
(see Figure 4 for a sample task).
A variety of tools is used to analyse the complex structure of an ST. For
example, Chromá (2008, 305) talks about sentence patterns visualising informa­
tion. Other methods include an analysis of the syntactic constituents following
Lehto (1992, 199–200), or analysis of cognitive structuring, proposed by Bhatia
(1993, 32–33). Using a legislative provision, Bhatia identifies two types of moves,
namely legislative provisions and specifying provisions that show both high com­
plexity and variety since they interact with the main legislative provision in
various positions and answer a number of questions that may be asked in the
respective context. In addition to qualifications, such an analysis may also be used
to tackle binomials and multinomials as, in fact, shown in Figure 5, which
contains an example of sentence visualisation. The presentation of model analyses
is followed by exercises in which trainees are asked to analyse the structure
themselves (see Figure 6 for a sample task).
 THE INTERPRETER AND TRANSLATOR TRAINER 219

TASK: Trainees are presented with complex legal sentences and are asked to analyse
them, taking the following steps:
1. finding the subject and verb;
2. eliminating any redundant details;
3. translating the main clause;
4. deciding where the details will fit best.

Example 1:
The Parties contemplate that subject to the condition precedent of amendment of
the articles of association of the Company (the “First Amendment”), substantially in the
form of the draft deed of amendment of the Company’s articles of association with
reference number A1151184 (with an English translation thereof with reference number
A11488121) as prepared by ABC, Amsterdam office (“ABC”), taking effect, 1,200 non-
cumulative convertible preference shares in the capital of the Company, with a nominal
value of EUR 4.50 each, numbered P1 through P1,200, shall be issued to the Shareholder,
as a result of which per the moment of fulfilment of such condition precedent the entire
issued and outstanding capital of the Company will consist of 255,572,505 ordinary
shares, with a nominal value of EUR 4.50 each, numbered 1 through 255,572,505, and
1,200 non-cumulative convertible preference shares, with a nominal value of EUR 4.50
each, numbered P1 through P1,200;
Colour marking is used to dissect the structure of a complex legal sentence. Trainees
are asked to identify the main clause (marked in red), the qualification introduced by
subject to, and the content of the condition precedent, as well as the result clause.

Figure 4. Sample task for Exercise 2 (a).

Such exercises also teach trainees to approach complex texts with more liberty
and confidence, and to get rid of the idea that the structure of the ST must always
be closely followed, which is in line with the importance of reformulation as stressed
above.

3.3. Exercise 3: cross-referencing

Anyone interpreting a legal text must have an understanding of the relations between
individual statutory or contractual provisions and the linguistic devices employed to
express such relations, the translator being no exception in this respect. In fact, their
interpretation may be more difficult for translators since Bhatia (1998) argues that legal
specialists may find such devices relatively manageable to cope with thanks to their
extensive training and experience. One such cross-referencing expression, also called
limiting clauses by Cao (2007, 95), or devices for defining legal scope, is subject to. The
difficulty in grasping and translating this kind of expression can be compounded by its
polysemous nature. The exercise in Figure 7 is designed to make trainees aware of the
usage of subject to, and its translation into their TL.
Whereas the first use is a case of cross-referencing, which signals that Clause 2.2
introduces an exception,9 the latter use means is governed by, etc. Figure 8 is used to
present a strategy for establishing the meaning. First, the differentiation between the use
220 O. KLABAL

To the extent not prohibited by applicable law, in no event shall Apple be liable for
personal injury, or any incidental, special, indirect or consequential damages
whatsoever, including, without limitation, damages for loss of profits, corruption or loss
of data, failure to transmit or receive any data, business interruption, or any other
commercial damages or losses, arising out of or related to your use or inability to use the
Apple software and services or any third party software or applications in conjunction
with the Apple software, however caused, regardless of the theory of liability (contract,
tort or otherwise) and even if Apple has been advised of the possibility of such damages.

Figure 5. Long sentence analysis (Matochová 2018, 21).

TASK: Trainees are presented with a number of complex legal sentences extracted from
the UK Companies Act and are asked to analyse them in pairs or on groups using one of
the methods that have been presented.
(1) The court, after hearing the applicant and any other persons who apply to the court
to be heard and appear to the court to be interested in the application, may, if satisfied
having regard to all the circumstances of the case that the variation would unfairly
prejudice the shareholders of the class represented by the applicant, disallow the
variation, and shall if not so satisfied confirm it.
(2) Notwithstanding that the power conferred by this section has expired, the directors
may allot equity securities in pursuance of an offer or agreement previously made by the
company if the power enabled the company to make an offer or agreement that would or
might require equity securities to be allotted after it expired.

Figure 6. Sample task for Exercise 2 (b).

 THE INTERPRETER AND TRANSLATOR TRAINER 221

TASK: Trainees are asked to read the following extract from a contractual provision and
explain the meaning of subject to in clause 2.1, and identify the relationship between clauses
2.1 and 2.2.

2.1 Subject to any variation under condition 2.2, the Contract shall be subject to these
terms and conditions. All other terms, conditions, and warranties, whether implied by statute
or trade usage or expressed by the Buyer (including any terms and conditions which the
Buyer purports to apply under any purchase order, confirmation of order, specification, or
other document), are hereby, to the fullest extent permitted by law, excluded, with the
exception of conditions expressly accepted by the Seller in writing and conditions and other
terms the exclusion of which is prohibited by law.
2.2 Any variation from these terms and conditions and any representations about the
Goods shall have no effect unless set out in writing and signed by authorized representatives
of each of the Parties. The Buyer acknowledges that it has not relied on any statement,
promise, or representation made or given by or on behalf of the Seller that is not set out in
the Contract.

Figure 7. Sample task for Exercise 3.

subject to
A B
without a copula verb with a copula verb

A1 A2 B1
Subject to Clause 3.2, the price of The Seller is entitled to change the Contracts may also be subject to
the products is set out in Schedule price subject to giving the Buyer conditions before performance, or
2. seven days’ prior written notice. they may be unconditional.

Unless Clause 3.2 provides for The Seller is entitled to change the Conditions before performance
otherwise, the price of the price if it gives seven days' prior may apply to the contracts, or the
products is set out in Schedule 2. notice to the Buyer. contracts may be unconditional.

Figure 8. Diagram for establishing the meaning of subject to.

of subject to with or without a copula verb must be established (A or B). Then trainees are
asked to rephrase all the sentences in the example. This should enable them to see that the
sentences under A may be rephrased as a conditional clause, whereas the sentences under
B may be rephrased using the verb apply, as shown in Figure 8. The rephrased sentences
are then used as a basis for eliciting possible translations into Czech. Other reformulation
strategies are available, and may be useful for translators. Aitken and Butt (2004, 90) give
the example shown in Table 2.
222 O. KLABAL

Table 2. Reformulation of sentences with subject to.

Subject to (reformulation)
(a) Subject to paragraph (b), the tenant must pay rent (a) The tenant must pay rent every Monday.
every Monday. (b) However, where a Monday is a public holiday, the tenant
(b) Where a Monday is a public holiday, the tenant may may pay the rent on Tuesday of that week.
pay the rent on Tuesday of that week.

Table 3. Overview of the use of provisos in legal drafting.

Proviso (correct use) Condition (incorrect use)
The Seller shall deliver sales reports to the Buyer on the The Seller may enter into leases with respect to the
last business day of each week, provided, however, that Subject Assets, provided, however, that the Seller’s
such delivery may be made on the first day of the interest under such leases is transferable to the Buyer.
following week if the number of business days in the
week covered by the report is less than five.
In a proviso, the words are often underlined in American However may not be used. Provided is acceptable in such
English. Proviso could be rephrased with clauses as a synonym for if or on condition that.
notwithstanding.

TASK: Trainees are presented with a number of sentences extracted from authentic contracts
which contain complex conjunctions that are typical of legal style. Trainees are then asked
to say what relation the conjunctions express (condition, exception, etc.) and to rephrase the
sentences using a simpler conjunction.
Inasmuch as the computation of net income and gains for federal income tax purposes may
vary from the computation thereof on the books of the Trust, the Board of Trustees shall have
the power, in its sole discretion, to distribute in any fiscal year as dividends, including
dividends designated in whole or in part as capital gains distributions, amounts sufficient, in
the opinion of the Board of Trustees, to enable the Trust to avoid or reduce liability for taxes.
To the extent that any of the Contracts can be assigned without obtaining a Third Party
Consent, this Agreement shall constitute an assignment to the Buyer of all of those Contracts
with effect from the Closing Date.
The Seller shall not be liable to the extent that the amount of the Claim of the Buyer is
recovered.

Figure 9. Sample task for Exercise 4.

Once subject to has been mastered, trainees are introduced to other cross-referencing
expressions such as notwithstanding or without prejudice to, as well as provisos. Trainees
are also made aware of their inconsistent use, even in EU documents, as noted by Štědrá
(2017).

3.4. Exercise 4: complex conjunctions

Cross-referencing words are not the only issue when trying to understand legal
texts. Legal language is also rich in conjunctions that are otherwise not used
frequently in everyday language. Alcaraz Varó and Hughes (2002, 20) argue that
translators should pay special attention to complex conditions with a number of
hypotheses and a mix of negative and positive possibilities. Conjunctions posing
interpretative problems include, without limitation, to the extent that, provided
that, or except as (Figure 9).
 THE INTERPRETER AND TRANSLATOR TRAINER 223

3.5. Exercise 5: understanding provisos

A provision which causes significant trouble is what is called the proviso. They are
considered by some authors as a traditional feature of legal drafting (e.g. Aitken and
Butt 2004, 86) and, as argued by Bhatia (1993, 118), they are an example of a lack of
consistency in using linguistic resources where a more consistent use would ‘create fewer
problems of interpretation both for specialist and non-specialist readers’. Fox (2008, 97)
defines a proviso as a clause which begins with ‘provided’ or ‘provided, however10; its
purpose is to override the concept that immediately precedes it11 or make a phrase
conditional upon what follows after it (cf. Wiggers 2011, 103). The problem with
provided that is the fact that it is not used strictly in this sense, but also to introduce
exceptions, limitations, or qualifications of the preceding phrases, or even a new provi­
sion independent of the main clause as illustrated in Table 3. Fox (2008, 97) also notes,
however, that very often provisos are used incorrectly in conditional clauses as
a substitute for ‘to the extent that’ or ‘if’.
The example in Figure 10 shows a strategy promoted by Aitken and Butt (2004, 87)
according to which any exceptions should appear in the part of the sentence to which they
relate. The last sentence could thus be rephrased as A member, other than a member of 40
years’ standing, must pay . . . and its translation from English could go along these lines.

3.6. Exercise 6: interpretation and construction provisions

Many contracts, as well as other binding legal texts, also include a number of
definitions and interpretation/construction provisions. Sometimes, such provisions
define metalanguage used throughout the legal document or stipulate interpretative
rules for such metalanguage.12 In these cases, they may require a specific strategy on
the part of the translator. While for the recipients of the ST, such provisions

TASK: Trainees are presented with a number of proviso clauses extracted from authentic
contracts. Trainees are then asked to rephrase, in pairs or groups, the sentences and propose
a translation into their TL.
If the Seller’s production of the product is stopped or disrupted by an event of force majeure,
the Seller must allocate its available supplies of the product to the Buyer based upon the
same percentage of the Seller’s preceding year’s shipments of products to the Buyer in
relation to the Seller’s total shipments of the product, provided, however, that to the extent
that the Seller does not need any tonnage that is available in excess of the allocation of
products to the Buyer, it must make that tonnage available to the Buyer.
The covenants under this clause shall continue until the date of expiry of the last Period
provided that the Trustee may declare that the said covenants shall come to an end on an
earlier date.
All the above comments apply to the Properties, provided that the comments concerning the
Expropriation Decision do not apply as there was no equivalent for the Properties.
A member must pay to the club not later than two years after the end of a financial year the
amount by which the total of the member’s purchases of food and beverages during that year
fall short of $900 PROVIDED THAT this rule does not apply to a member of 40 years’
standing.

Figure 10. Sample task for Exercise 5.

224 O. KLABAL

TASK: Trainees are presented with an authentic English contract and are asked to identify,
in pairs or groups, any provisions that are to be interpreted by them as translators, rather than
target recipients.
If they are unable to do so, they are prompted by the teacher’s questions. Once such
provisions have been identified, the strategies for reflecting them in the TL are discussed.
The provisions discussed include:
“In this Agreement, unless the context otherwise requires, the following words and
expressions shall have the following meanings:
Agreement means this agreement between the Parties, as amended, supplemented, or
restated from time to time, and “herein”, “hereof”, “hereto”, “hereunder”, and similar
expressions mean this Agreement and not any particular clause or provision…”

Figure 11. Sample task for Exercise 6.

amount to an instruction as to how to read (or interpret) the language of the ST,
for the translator, such provisions also amount to an instruction as to how to deal
with such language in the translation, and render it accordingly in the TL, which
might require a certain level of adaptation. Translators thus need to be aware of
both perspectives.
In Figure 11, it makes no sense to translate the part in bold into the TL and it would, in fact,
be impossible to do so unless the TL also makes use of equivalent referencing words. Rather,
the clause must be seen by the translator as an instruction to identify all instances of such
here-referencing words in the SL and translate them according to the instruction, i.e. as
a reference to the contract as a whole, rather than a single clause. There are no such pro-
formas other than possessive pronouns used in Czech, and their meaning must, therefore, be
made explicit in translation. For example, hereunder in an assignment clause (‘None of the
Parties hereto shall be entitled to assign any of its rights and delegate any of its obligations
hereunder without the prior written consent of the other Parties’.) must be translated as
závazky z této smlouvy (under this Agreement), rather than závazky podle tohoto článku
(under this clause).
Similarly, the following provisions include a number of hints to be used by the
translator:

In each Contract Document: (i) ‘include(ing)’ means ‘include, but are not limited to’ or
‘including, without limitation’; (ii) ‘or’ means ‘either or both’ (‘A or B’ means ‘A or B or both
A and B’); (iii) ‘e.g’. means ‘for example, including, without limitation’; and (iv) ‘written’ or
‘in writing’ includes email or facsimile communication, in the absence of any express
statement otherwise.

The words ‘to the extent’ when used in this Agreement shall be deemed to be followed by the
phrase ‘and only to the extent’. Unless the context requires otherwise, references in this
Agreement to Articles, Sections, Exhibits, and Schedules shall be deemed to be references to
Articles and Sections of, and Exhibits and Schedules to, this Agreement and Exhibits and
Schedules to this Agreement shall be deemed to form part of this Agreement.

For example, the rule under (ii) is an instruction for a translator translating the document
into Czech not to use commas preceding nebo (the Czech equivalent of or) since it has
a conjunctive meaning.
 THE INTERPRETER AND TRANSLATOR TRAINER 225

3.7. Exercise 7: interpreting the verb to deem

Although it has been argued above that translators are usually not required to have the
interpretation skills of lawyers, there are instances where such skills may be useful, not to
say indispensable. This exercise aims to raise trainees’ awareness of one such case. Legal
theory both in civil law and in common law draws a distinction between rebuttable and
conclusive (irrebuttable) presumptions and legal fictions. Table 4 shows the definitions
and examples of each of these as presented to trainees.

Table 4. Overview of legal presumptions and legal fictions and the corresponding linguistic forms.
Rebuttable presumption Conclusive presumption Legal fiction
Definition A presumption that may be A presumption that the Something assumed in law to be
refuted by evidence to the law does not allow to fact irrespective of the truth or
contrary (Merriam-Webster be rebutted accuracy of that assumption
1996)
Example Presumption of innocence A child below the age of The rights of adoptive parents
X cannot be held (Duhaime, n.d.).
criminally responsible.
Verb(s) used to Má se za to, že Platí Hledí se jako na
express in
Czech
Verb(s) used to Is deemed Is deemed Is deemed
express in Is presumed Is conclusively presumed Is regarded as
English Is treated as Is treated as
(as identified Is regarded as Is considered as
by Chromá Is taken to be Is valid in law as if
2014, 79–84) Has effect as if

TASK: Trainees are presented with a number of sentences including the verb to deem, and
are asked to determine the applicable legal theory using both linguistic (underlined below for
rebuttable presumptions and marked in bold for legal fictions) and extralinguistic clues.
Trainees are asked to engage in group discussion about why such rules may be useful, what
their purpose is, and whether it is desirable to make it possible to show the contrary.
For the purposes of paragraph (2), where two or more shareholders die in circumstances
rendering it uncertain who was the last to die, a younger shareholder is deemed to have
survived an older shareholder.
Where minutes have been made in accordance with that section of the proceedings of a
meeting of directors, then, until the contrary is proved, (a) the meeting is deemed duly held
and convened, (b) all proceedings at the meeting are deemed to have duly taken place, and
(c) all appointments at the meeting are deemed valid.
The general effect of administrative restoration to the register is that the company is deemed
to have continued in existence as if it had not been dissolved or struck off the register.
A certificate purporting to be signed as mentioned in sub-paragraph (1) is to be deemed to
have been duly signed unless the contrary is shown.
Persons having a joint interest in shares are deemed each of them to have that interest.
If, after notice of the intention to move such a resolution has been given to the company, a
meeting is called for a date 28 days or less after the notice has been given, the notice is
deemed to have been properly given, though not given within the time required.

Figure 12. Sample task for Exercise 7 (a).

226 O. KLABAL

TASK: As a second step, trainees are presented with another set of sentences extracted from
contracts, and are asked to identify the meaning (or the role) of the verb to deem:
For the purposes of this clause, the outgoings which the tenant must pay under this lease
are deemed to be rent.
“Wild animals” shall be deemed to include a horse.
Neither party shall have any liability or be deemed to be in breach of this Agreement for
any delays or failures in performance of this Agreement which result from circumstances
beyond the reasonable control of that party, including without limitation labour disputes
involving that party.
Notices sent as above shall be deemed to have been received three working days after the
day of posting.

Figure 13. Sample task for Exercise 7 (a).

The problem which requires the translator’s interpretation, or understanding of the

differences, is caused by the fact that documents and legislation drafted in English do not
use a single verb to express presumptions or legal fictions, and some verbs, such as deem, may
be used to express any of these. Therefore, legal translators working from English into Czech,
or another TL, must understand the difference, and choose the TL verb accordingly
(Figure 12).
To reinforce the trainees’ ability to distinguish between the individual cases, other
verbs from Table 4 (e.g. to be regarded as) may also be used, as well as examples from
contracts where deem may also carry a number of meanings, as discussed by Aitken and
Butt (2004, 91). A sample task is shown in Figure 13.

4. Conclusions
This paper has presented a step-by-step approach to teaching legal translation,
taking understanding of English legal texts as a case in point. It illustrates the
relevance of understanding and interpretation in the process of legal translation,
and how much interpretation is actually expected on the part of translators, by
proposing a series of exercises that may help trainees understand complex legal
sentences better, as well as raise their awareness of a number of legal expressions
that may be tricky in translation, but could go unnoticed if not explicitly brought
to the trainee’s attention. The variety of the issues tackled is not exhaustive and
other functional elements could be included (e.g. expressing lists). In a way, the
approach proposed in this paper may also be seen as a response to Biel (2011,
165), who called for ‘more exchange of best practices’ to ‘serve as a point of
reference or benchmark for legal translation teachers’.
Trainers may use the material directly, adapt it to their language pair, or possibly
develop similar exercises for other legal language features they, or the trainees, may find
challenging. The proposal may also be viewed as a menu from which trainers may cherry-
pick ideas and exercises depending on their teaching context and needs.
 THE INTERPRETER AND TRANSLATOR TRAINER 227

Notes
1. The paper is based on a chapter of an unpublished doctoral dissertation defended by the
author (Klabal 2020).
2. Unless expressly specified otherwise, the examples used in this paper come from authentic
documents translated by the author.
3. This is a view often held by legal professionals, who, as noted by Bestué Salinas (2019, 144),
‘tend to oversimplify the task and consider that legal hermeneutics only comes into play
once the translation is completed’. This paper tries to show that hermeneutics is an intrinsic
part of the legal translation process.
4. The importance of such a process as part of legal translation is emphasised by other authors
as well, e.g. Smith (1995) refers to intralingual translation as a process of translating the legal
language into the standard language.
5. The label ‘English legal texts’ is used in this paper to refer to any legal texts drafted in English
both by native and non-native authors.
6. To support the argument in the classroom, a parallel could be drawn to the concept of
deverbalisation in interpreting. While the terms of art in a legal text are transposed into the
TL using conceptual analysis or established equivalents, the rest of the ST language is
deliberately forgotten and the meaning is recreated in the TL using authentic TL language,
which may eliminate SL interference (see Lederer 2003).
7. The exercise type is merely a recommendation based on the author’s experience. Depending
on the trainees’ level and expertise as well as the classroom dynamics, individual exercises
may be used for pair work, or assigned as individual homework to be discussed in pairs or
groups in class.
8. This also becomes evident in the process of specialised translation as described by Grygová
(2010, 207), who identifies the following stages: (1) global understanding of the ST, followed
by its atomization into (small) translation units, (2) drafting a ‘raw’ target text (TT), and
finally (3) adjusting the TT to the needs of the readers.
9. Cao (2007, 95–96): relationship between master provision and subject provision.
10. Aitken and Butt (2004, 86) note that provided always that and provided nonetheless that are
also found.
11. In this respect it is similar to notwithstanding.
12. Construction provisions in contracts are not the only context where legal translation
trainees may encounter the use of metalanguage. Similar situations may also appear when
translating multilingual legislation, or case-law involving a linguistic issue. Parallels may be
drawn and comparisons established to make trainees aware of the strategies that are
available to deal with such issues in different genres and for different purposes.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

ORCID
Ondřej Klabal http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0395-1405

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