On Legal Translation

In such an epoch when economic globalization becomes a trend, legal translation is viewed as one of the most significant factors that motivated the progress of our country. Ever since China's accession to WTO on Dec. 11th, 2001,the need for legal translation has topped its history. Because China needs above all, large amounts of legal translation of WTO law so as to balance the rights and obligations. The same is true to varieties of industry laws.However comparing to theory of literary translation, the theory of legal translation is rather underdeveloped. Although many legal translators have introduced some concrete methods for legal translation, there is not a theory or a principle that can be applied to guide the translators. What's more, legal translation is a communicative process among different legal systems. Therefore, the challenge that legal translators face is not only inter-lingual transfer but also communication of legal thoughts and concepts which can convey the intended legal effects.This paper, after introducing features of legal language, and the goal of legal translation, takes principle of Dual Functional Equivalence as the theoretical basis; because this theory takes into account both the linguistic effect and legal effect of translation. The application of this theory into practice through large number of examples proves that it is reasonable and suitable to use it to guide legal translation.The paper is composed of three parts: introduction, text and conclusion.The introduction gives a clear picture of why this paper is written, what theory is applied, and what goal is to be achieved.