A Study Of Legal Translation From The Perspective Of Static Equivalence

This report,based on my translation of Guide to International Environmental Lawinto Chinese,is to discuss how the static equivalence theory can be used to improve the quality of legal translation,making great contributions to international exchange and cooperation.As a unique type of documentation,legal text differs from other types of textswhen it comes to translation.Precise in terms,complicated in sentence structure,specialized in expression and exclusive in concept,legal text poses a great challengeto and requires a superb mastery of knowledge and field practice from the translator.Compared with other types of translation,especially literary translation,the research of legal translation lags behind both in terms of quality and quantity.Large amounts of legal translation studies focus on translation practice of legal texts,the study of legal translation theory has never gone that far.Meanwhile,the main translation theories applied in legal translation are Nida's dynamic equivalence theory,Newmark's communicative translation theory,Vermeer's skopos theory and so on,each concerned with just one aspect in legal translation.Based on my own translation practice,Ifind that the static equivalence strategy proposed by Li Kexing is more applicable to doing and studying legal translation.This is because both English and Chinese legal writings share the same features of legal language,such as exact and technical diction,and stereotyped syntax.Therefore,this report analyzes the applicability of the static equivalence theory in translation practice by taking examples from Guide to International Environmental Law.The analysis is done at lexical and syntactic level.It is hoped that this way of analysis can provide a new perspective for doing legal translation studies as well as benefiting legal translation practice.