A Reader-oriented Approach To Legal Translation

Legal translation is by nature a cross-cultural communication within the mechanism of laws. In the process of communication, the reader of the target text cannot be simply treated as a passive recipient of the information; rather, s/he must be actively involved in the process as a participant. In the past, the important role played by the reader of the target legal text is practically ignored due to the nature of the legal text such as authoritativeness and solemnity. As for translation strategies, it is literal translation that is mainly recommended by scholars in the field. However, overstatement of the fidelity to the original legal text might well result in the legal translator's too much attaching importance to formal equivalence of legal translation rather than functional equivalence, and worse still, the legal effect, the core of the target text, would be probably at risk.To find out a more effective approach to legal translation, the present study shifts its focus from the original legal text to the reader/receiver of the target legal text. There is an assumption that the reader's response can serve as an utmost contributing factor for the legal translator to determine his/her translation strategies in the translating process and the important criteria to criticize the quality of legal translation. To prove its validity, the thesis first reviews the development of the reader's response theories and especially, the reader-oriented theories in translation. Among them, equivalence theory and Skopostheorie are highlighted owing to the fact that they are so general in their theoretical formulations as to subsume all other criteria of translation criticism and so flexible as to enable the translator to take account of the distinctive natures of the legal texts. In addition, some statements respecting traditional Chinese translation theories are also included to demonstrate Chinese scholars' concern for reader's response in translation activities.To account for the applicability of equivalence theory and Skopostheorie to legal translation, the thesis probes into the nature of legal translation and analyzes its elements in a reader-oriented way. Legal translation is constrained by legal culture and legal language. The thesis examines the differences existing in the legal cultures, especially legal systems and recommends domestication as the major option for legal translation without exclusion of foreignization. Better understanding of legal cultures contributes a lot to the translation of legal concepts. As far as legal language is concerned, the features of it are summarized in contrast to common language. There is also a brief discussion of Plain English Movement in terms of its impact upon legal translation.To justify the application of the equivalence theory and Skopostheorie to legal translation, the thesis presents their explanatory strength in the legal context. And it classifies the readers of the target legal texts into different categories to recommend different ways to deal with various legal texts according to the reader's response. And translation of pluralingual texts is cited as a special case to illustrate the reader-oriented approach. All the endeavors in the present thesis are made in an attempt to convey the best-preserved legal effect and achieve the intended response from the target readers.