Legal translation in Saudi Arabia : a contrastive analysis of linguistic challenges encountered by practitioners

Abstract

This study investigates the differences and similarities between Arabic and English legal texts in terms of structure and stylistic features. It also tackles the difficulties involved in legal translation practice in Saudi Arabia, as well as the effects on legal translation that result from legal translators consulting with legal drafters. All these areas are explored by two methods; first, through a contrastive linguistic analysis of both Arabic and English legal texts in general and contracts and agreements in particular; second, through an empirical study conducted on two professional categories: that is, legal translators and lawyers specializing in legal drafting in Saudi Arabia. The results confirmed that translating legal texts is far more difficult compared to the translation of other texts, the majority of legal translators find translation of legal texts from Arabic into English is more difficult than the translation from English into Arabic, and translation of commercial contracts and agreements from Arabic into English is more difficult than translation from English into Arabic. The main reasons for this might be that the native language of the translators is Arabic, the lack of sufficient second language acquisition in general and legal language in particular, and less consultation with legal English experts. Furthermore, this study revealed that the translation of culture-specific legal terms constitutes a significant difficulty for legal translators in translating commercial contracts and agreements from Arabic into English and vice versa, followed by general legal terminology, text layout, and finally tense, modals, punctuation, capitalization, and sentence structure. It also confirmed that the majority of legal translators in Saudi Arabia found collaboration between legal translators and legal drafters when translating commercial contracts and agreements very important.

Date of Award	2010
Original language	English