Comments On The English Translation Of The Regulations Of The PRC On International Maritime Transportation And Its Implementing Rules

The promulgation of the Regulations of the People's Republic of China on International Maritime Transportation on Jan. 1st 2002 and its Implementing Rules published on March 1st 2003 symbolizes that China's international maritime administration has officially been included in China's legal system, which reflects China's further opening-up of the shipping market since the accession to the WTO. Although the Regulations and its Implementing Rules are regarded as another landmark in China's maritime law history after Maritime Code of the People's Republic of China, the translations are scrutinized and questioned by legal experts and shipping operators worldwide. However, few people have made the relevant analysis and study from the linguistic point of view. Thus, it is of vital importance to have a systematic and theoretical study and overview on the translation of the Regulations and its Implementing Rules.In the field of linguistic study, there isn't any translation theory which is used specially in legal translation. It is well known that the key factors of translating do interact and interplay with each other. An objective and efficient translation criterion can not go without the participant of the reader. This thesis is formed on the basis of reader's response emphasized in Nida's translation theory of Functional Equivalence. The author has proved that reader's response mentioned in Nida's FE is in a broad sense which actually emphasizes the same "understanding" of the two readers. This is the same with the requirement of equal legal effect that there is only one understanding acceptable according to the law. Unlike literary works, the primary goal of law is not to be appreciated, but to be abided by. In other words, legal translation permits only one understanding, the one same as that derived form the original. Thus, the connecting point between the translation theory and legal translation has been found. This is also a creative fruit of this thesis. Base on the theory proved above, the author made analysis and study of the translation from both positive and negative aspects.The whole article is divided into four chapters Chapter One: The significance of the Regulations and the Implementing Rules and why a theoretical and systematic review is neededChapter Two: Theoretical exploration. On the basis of reader's response theory emphasized in Nida's Functional Equivalence, the author has found out the connecting point between the translation theory and legal translation.Chapter Three: Translation techniques on lexical level and syntactic level to achieve equivalent readers' understanding.Chapter Four: Defects and mistakes on lexical, syntactic and stylistic levels which would lead reader's misunderstanding.At the end of the thesis the author concludes that an excellent translation of legal text needs to achieve the same understanding of the two readers. No misunderstanding is allowed. The author also believes that a combination of theories with practices in this field will contribute greatly to the production of satisfactory legal document translations.