On The Translation Of Soft Law Terms With Chinese Characteristics

Soft law refers to the normative provisions and practices enacted or recognized by the state or formulated by social groups and organizations and have no binding force since it is not implemented by the coercive power of the state.Pioneer of the concept “Governance of Soft Law”,the renowned jurist Luo Haocai wrote For the Balance between Right and Power: The Construction of a Law--governed China and the Governance of Soft Law in the field of soft law studies in a student-friendly style characterizing current researches and debates on soft law in China.This translation report is based on the translation work of the third part of this book,“the Governance of Soft Law”,with a special emphasis on soft law and the construction of legal system,the construction of government and social governance.Focusing on the translation of soft law terms with Chinese characteristics,the translator first illustrates the translation standards and the standardization of legal term translation and then analyzes the translation strategies for three kinds of soft law terms as classified according to their structure and content: four-character terms,long phrases and commonly-confused terms.Under the translation theory of foreignization and domestication proposed by Lawrence Venuti's,the translator combines theory with translation practice of soft law terms in an attempt to not only provide inspirations on the translation of soft law terms with Chinese characteristics but give foreign readers a thorough introduction and understanding of China's governance of soft law and its efforts to build a law-governed country.